Facebook abandons appeal against £500,000 Cambridge Analytica fine
Facebook has dropped its appeal over a £500,000 data protection fine for its Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The social media network has made no admission of liability but will no longer contest the maximum fine imposed by UK watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg appealed the penalty last November after the watchdog issued the fine in October 2018 for “suspected failings” of data protection law.
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The scandal saw Cambridge Analytica steal data from 87m Facebook users.
The £500,000 sum pales in comparison to the $5bn Facebook paid in the US to settle a government lawsuit. But it is the maximum fine the ICO could levy at the time, before new data protection rules came into place.
The ICO launched an appeal after a tribunal decided in June that Facebook’s appeal could include allegations of bias at the UK watchdog.
Today’s settlement saw both Facebook and the ICO withdraw their appeals.
“We are pleased to have reached a settlement with the ICO,” Facebook director and associate general counsel, Harry Kinmonth, said.
“As we have said before, we wish we had done more to investigate claims about Cambridge Analytica in 2015. We made major changes to our platform back then, significantly restricting the information which app developers could access.”
“Protecting people’s information and privacy is a top priority for Facebook, and we are continuing to build new controls to help people protect and manage their information.”
The ICO’s deputy commissioner, James Dipple-Johnstone, also welcomed the settlement.
“The ICO’s main concern was that UK citizen data was exposed to a serious risk of harm,” he added.
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“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.”