Facebook Fined $644,000 in The UK by The Information Commissioner’s Office

• The ICO has fined Facebook for the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
• The social media giant will have to pay only £500,000 ($644,000) against the current maximum fine of $22 million.
• The company has been called out for not placing suitable checks when handing out user data.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal continues to haunt Facebook with legal proceedings and penalties still being imposed on the company. The Information Commissioner's Office in the UK has fined the social media company £500,000 ($644,000). The fine was placed in accordance with the old legislation under the 1998 Data Protection Act that was in effect long before GDPR was introduced. Following the implementation of GDPR, the current maximum fine now stands at $22 million.

Head of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Elizabeth Denham stated: “We considered these contraventions to be so serious we imposed the maximum penalty. Under the previous legislation, the fine would inevitably have been significantly higher under the GDPR.”

We received reports that the ICO plans to levy the maximum possible fine against Facebook back in July and it has finally been made official. With Facebook posting a revenue of $13.2 billion in the previous quarter, it is a small amount to pay. However, the social media platform’s image has been tarnished, and the company has already faced another data breach recently to make matters worse. Data tokens of 30 million users were stolen, which adds yet another controversy to the list. The company is currently looking for security companies to acquire in a bid to bolster its security for users.

Facebook has been called out for not making suitable checks on apps and developers that use the platform to keep users’ personal data safe. The Cambridge Analytica scandal allowed data of 87 million people across the world to be compromised without any knowledge. The data was used for political purposes, and the ICO will be submitting proof of the same in the near future.

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