Tag: Cambridge Analytica

Privacy incidents cost Facebook 5 billion dollar

15. July 2019

According to a report of the Washington Post the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved a $ 5 billion (approx. € 4,4 billion) settlement with Facebook. The settlement was reached between the FTC and Facebook due to various Data Protection incidents, in particular the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The settlement relies on a three to two vote – the FTC’s three republicans supported the fine the two democrats were against it- and terminates the procedure for investigating Facebook’s privacy violations against users’ personal information. The fine of $ 5 billion is the highest fine ever assessed against a tech company, but even if it sounds like a very high fine, it only corresponds to the amount of the monthly turnover and is therefore not very high in relative terms. So far, the highest fine was $ 22,5 million for Google in 2012.

The decision of the FTC needs to be approved by the Justice Department. As a rule, however, this is a formality.

This is not the first fine Facebook has to accept in connection with various data protection incidents and certainly not the last. Investigations against Facebook are still ongoing in Spain as well as in Germany. In addition, Facebook has been criticized for quite some time for privacy incidents.

Italian DPA fines Facebook

2. July 2019

The Italian Data Protection Authority Garante (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) fined Facebook due to the Cambridge Analytica Scandal of 2015, which was discovered in 2018. The Cambridge Analytica Scandal is connected to the presidential campaign of the current president of the USA Donald Trump.

The Garante has imposed a fine of EUR 1.000.000 for abusing the use of data of more than 200.000 Italian Facebook users and their Facebook friends. According to the Garante, the abused data has not been transferred to Cambridge Analytica, which was also confirmed by a Facebook spokesman.  Nevertheless, the high fine was imposed.

The fine is still based on the old Italian Data Protection law because at the time of the abusive use the GDPR, which now applies throughout Europe, was not yet in force.

Facebook has to answer to the scandal not only in Italy. Legal consequences are also looming in the USA.

 

The ICO intends to fine Facebook a maximum of £500.000

12. July 2018

The British Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) intends to fine Facebook a maximum of £500,000 after investigating the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica case. Back then, the Investigation started because of allegations that information of about 50 million Facebook users were obtained by Cambridge Analytica without the data subject’s consents by the use of a personality-analysis app. Present estimate suggest that about 87 million users were affected, as the ICO reports.

As stated by the ICO, it intends to fine Facebook for two breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998. It is further said, that Facebook should have contravened the law by failing to safeguard people’s information and failing to be transparent regarding the harvesting of people’s data by others. Facebook, however, will have the possibility to respond to the Notice of Intent. Afterwards a final decision will be made.

Unlike the much higher fees (up to €20 million or 4% of their global annual turnover, whichever is higher) that might be imposed under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), depending on the individual case, £ 500.000 is the maximum possible under the British Data Protection Act 1998. The reason that the Data Protection Act 1998 and not the General Data Protection Regulation was applicable is the time of the events, since they happened before the 25th May 2018, which was the time the General Data Protection Regulation became directly applicable in all member states.

Category: EU · USA
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Facebook: EU Data may not have been shared with Cambridge Analytica

27. June 2018

As Bloomberg reports, Facebook said that evidence suggests that EU data may not be shared with Cambridge Analytica at all. Stephen Satterfield, a director on Facebook’s Privacy and Public Policy team told European Union lawmakers in a hearing: “The best information we have suggests that no European user data was shared by Dr. [Aleksandr] Kogan with Cambridge Analytica”. Aleksandr Kogan was the researcher who developed the app that allowed Cambridge Analytica to receive data from millions of Facebook users, which were later sold to the consulting firm working on the Donald Trump U.S. presidential campaign.

Facebook clarifies that they cannot be 100 per cent certain about this matter and that they will have to await the results of their own internal investigations, following the conclusion of the investigations of the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) that are being undertaken at the moment. In March this year, the offices of Cambridge Analytica were investigated by the ICO amid the allegations information of Facebook’s user data was obtained without the data subject’s consents.

Richard Allen, Facebook’s vice president of policy solutions, explaining the evidences that led Facebook to the conclusion that European data may not be shared with Cambridge Analytica, said that Kogan’s contract with Cambridge Analytica instructed Kogan to collect data from Americans to be used in the political campaigns. Allan further said, that Kogan may still have collected European data, while most of the people who installed the app were Americans.

“But the data he delivered to Cambridge Analytica were the Americans’ data because that’s all they wanted,” Allan stated.

However, Facebook previously had announced that about 2.7 million Europeans may have had their data shared with Cambridge Analytica. Ursula Pachl, deputy director-general of European consumer group BEUC said: “I have to say I was a bit surprised by the statements,” by further adding, “this is a contradiction, I don’t know how it can be explained.”