The fine has been imposed yesteryear the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in addition to was calculated using the UK's quondam Data Protection Act 1998 which tin give the sack levy a maximum penalization of £500,000 — ironically that’s equals to the sum Facebook earns every xviii minutes.
The intelligence does non come upwardly every bit a surprise every bit the U.K.'s information privacy watchdog already notified the social network giant inwards July this year that the committee was intended to number the maximum fine.
For those unaware, Facebook has been nether scrutiny since before this yr when it was revealed that the personal information of 87 ane chiliad one thousand users was improperly gathered in addition to misused yesteryear political consultancy theatre Cambridge Analytica, who reportedly helped Donald Trump win the U.S. of A. presidency inwards 2016.
The ICO, who launched an investigation the Cambridge Analytica scandal inwards March, said that the information from at to the lowest degree 1 ane chiliad one thousand British citizens was "unfairly processed," in addition to that Facebook "failed to get got appropriate technical in addition to organisational measures" to prevent the data from falling into the incorrect hands.
"The ICO's investigation constitute that betwixt 2007 in addition to 2014, Facebook processed the personal information of users unfairly yesteryear allowing application developers access to their information without sufficiently clear in addition to informed consent, in addition to allowing access fifty-fifty if users had non downloaded the app, but were precisely 'friends' amongst people who had," the ICO said confirming the fine.
Besides this, the ICO every bit good stressed that the social network every bit good "failed to brand suitable checks on apps in addition to developers using its platform," which eventually expose the personal data of upwardly to 87 ane chiliad one thousand people worldwide, without their knowledge.
In reply to the ICO announcement, Facebook noted that the society is reviewing the ICO decision, highlighting its previous admission that Facebook "should get got done more" to investigate claims well-nigh Cambridge Analytica inwards 2015.
"We are grateful that the ICO has acknowledged our total co-operation throughout their investigation in addition to get got every bit good confirmed they get got constitute no prove to advise Great Britain Facebook users' information was inwards fact shared amongst Cambridge Analytica," says a Facebook spokesperson inwards a statement.
"Now that their investigation is complete, nosotros are hopeful that the ICO volition straightaway permit us get got access to CA servers in addition to hence that nosotros are able to audit the information they received."
However, the £500,000 fine is precisely a drib inwards the bounding main for a society similar Facebook that brought inwards £31.5 billion inwards global revenue lastly year.
The penalization could get got been much larger had it fallen nether EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), wherein a society could confront a maximum fine of twenty ane chiliad one thousand euros or 4% of its annual global revenue, whichever is higher, for such a privacy breach.
Facebook's annual revenue was nearly £31.5 billion inwards 2017, which could get got resulted inwards a possible fine of £1.26 billion nether the GDPR rules. But luckily for Facebook that GDPR came into forcefulness inwards May 2018 afterward the timing of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Last month, the UK's information protection watchdog every bit good issued the maximum allowed fine of £500,000 on credit reporting means Equifax for its lastly year's massive information breach that exposed personal in addition to fiscal information of hundreds of millions of its customers.
