Facebook Finally Pays £500K Cambridge Analytica Fine

Facebook has finally reached an agreement with the UK’s privacy regulator to pay a £500,000 penalty related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a year after the fine was levied.

The social network had lodged an appeal against the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and in June a tribunal agreed that the watchdog’s decision-making process should be scrutinized as part of the case, to investigate allegations of bias. The ICO appealed this judgement in September this year.

However, the two parties have now agreed to withdraw their respective appeals, which means Facebook will pay the £500,000 but accept no liability relating to the penalty notice. Both parties will pay their own legal costs.

“The ICO’s main concern was that UK citizen data was exposed to a serious risk of harm. Protection of personal information and personal privacy is of fundamental importance, not only for the rights of individuals, but also as we now know, for the preservation of a strong democracy,” argued deputy commissioner, James Dipple-Johnstone.

“We are pleased to hear that Facebook has taken, and will continue to take, significant steps to comply with the fundamental principles of data protection. With this strong commitment to protecting people’s personal information and privacy, we expect that Facebook will be able to move forward and learn from the events of this case."

The original penalty notice alleged that Facebook had processed user information “unfairly” under the old Data Protection Act 1998. It did this by allowing developers to access the data without adequa ..

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