Facebook has been fined $654,000 by the UK government for its role in the infamous Cambridge Analytica Scandal. The scandal resulted in almost 1 million UK users losing their data, and the number was 87 million for worldwide users.
The fine (read: Peanuts) is just the amount that Facebook earns within 9 minutes as per its $40.7bn revenue generated in the year 2017.
The reason behind the Lilliputian fine is the fact that the company has been fined as per the Data Protection Act 1998 that were in motion when the scandal happened. Had Facebook been fined according to the newly implemented GDPR law, they would have to part ways with as much as 4% of their annual revenue which could have been a huge and worthy sum.
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office said, “The ICO’s investigation found that between 2007 and 2014, Facebook processed the personal information of users unfairly by allowing application developers access to their information without sufficiently clear and informed consent.”
The statement also read, “After considering representations from the company, the ICO has issued the fine to Facebook and confirmed that the amount – the maximum allowable under the laws which applied at the time the incidents occurred – will remain unchanged.”
The notorious Cambridge Analytica scandal raised serious concerns over the user’s privacy, and the social networking giant received massive criticism from the government and the users alike.
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