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Facebook fined £500,000 for Cambridge Analytica leak by data watchdog

Facebook has been fined 500,000 for breaching data protection rules linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the UK’s data watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office has confirmed.

The record levy on the social media giant, first announced in July, is for failing to safeguard people’s information and failing to be transparent about how people’s data was harvested by others.

The ICO said Facebook security failings allowed the personal data of up to 87 million to be harvested without their knowledge by a company called GSR, with some of the data later shared with SCL Group.

“Facebook failed to sufficiently protect the privacy of its users before, during and after the unlawful processing of this data,” saidInformation Commissioner Elizabeth Denham.

The fine was issued under the Data Protection Act and is the maximum possible.New legislation thatwas passed in May, called the General Data Protection Regulation, will allow future fines to be as much as20 million or 4 per cent of annual worldwide, whichever is greater.

Original article
Author: Newscientist

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