Britain To Penalize Facebook Over Data Protection Violations

information regulator of Britain this week claimed that she plans to penalize Facebook for violations of data protection regulation. This comes at a time when her office inquires how millions of consumers’ information was inappropriately accessed by Cambridge Analytica.

Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, has encountered questioning by EU and the U.S. lawmakers over how Cambridge Analytica inappropriately got access of the personal information of 87 Million Facebook consumers from a scientist.

Updating on her inquiry into the employment of data analytics by political operations, Elizabeth Denham (the Information Commissioner of Britain) claimed that she aims to penalize Facebook with 500,000 Pounds (almost $663,850), a small amount for a firm with a market capitalization of $590 Billion, but the maximum amount permitted.

Denham claimed that Facebook had violated the law by failing to protect users’ data and had not been clear about how information was used by others on its website.

“New techs that employ data analytics to micro-aim at individuals offer campaign groups the capability of connecting with different voters. But this can’t be at the expense of fairness, transparency, and compliance with the commandment,” she claimed to the media in an interview.

Facebook can answer to the commissioner prior to a final verdict is made, and claimed that it would respond soon after reviewing the report. “As we have stated before, we must have done more to inspect claims related to Cambridge Analytica and take measures in 2015,” Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer, Erin Egan, claimed to the media in an interview.

On a related note, Facebook might also be facing some hard time in Australia. The Australian Government might fine Facebook for the breach of private data of Facebook users in Australia. The amount of the fine is claimed to range from Aus$300 Million to Aus$3 Billion.