MANILA, Philippines – The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the United Kingdom on Thursday, October 25, fined Facebook £500,000 (now approximately $644,000) for “serious breaches of data protection law” following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

The watchdog announced this fine on July 10, but made clear it was levying the maximum penalty allowed by the law at the time the the incident occurred.

The ICO said between 2007 and 2014, Facebook processed users’ personal information unfairly.

The office said Facebook lacked the necessary privacy protections and overlooked indicators that could have prevented Cambridge Analytica from trying to manipulate public opinion. 

The ICO also said it allowed Aleksandr Kogan and his company GSR, to harvest the “Facebook data of up to 87 million people worldwide, without their knowledge. A subset of this data was later shared with other organizations, including SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica who were involved in political campaigning in the US.”

Around one million users in the United Kingdom were said to have been part of the harvested data, potentially placing their data in a scenario where it could be misused or abused.

More information on the reasoning behind the penalty is available here. – Rappler.com