The UK Data Protection Authority Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has against Facebook because of the data scandal to the research firm Cambridge Analytica the maximum penalty imposed by 500,000 pounds (565,000 euros).
London (dpa) – The online network has admitted a “serious violation” of applicable law. Affected data scandal in the online network, said the ICO on Thursday in London .
In the data scandal , more than four years ago, the developer of a survey app had unlawfully passed information from Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica , which later worked for US President Donald Trump’s campaign team . It was not just about the data of about 300 000 survey participants, but also about their Facebook friends. Data access for app developers allowed for this broad collection of information from 2007 through 2014.
The ICO now complained that Facebook had granted app developers without a legal basis access to the data. “Between 2007 and 2014, Facebook unlawfully processed users’ personal information by giving application developers access to their data without sufficiently clear and informed consent, even allowing users access to the app instead of downloading it Befriended with people who had the app. ”
Even after the abuse of the data was discovered in December 2015, Facebook did not do enough to clarify the affair and the protection of Facebook members, criticized the ICO. According to the ICO’s research, Cambridge Analytica had been able to gain the data of over a million people in the UK with the Quiz app.