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Facebook fined £500,000 in UK for failing to safeguard users' data
Facebook has been under scrutiny since it surfaced that Cambridge Analytica used data from tens of millions of Facebook accounts to help Trump's 2016 election 
Damian Collins said the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) concluded that Facebook “contravened the law by failing to safeguard people's information.” The chairman of the U.K. Parliament's media committee says the government office that investigated the Cambridge Analytica scandal has fined Facebook £500,000 for failing to safeguard users' data.
Damian Collins said the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) concluded that Facebook “contravened the law by failing to safeguard people's information.”
Collins said on Wednesday that the company “should now make the results of their internal investigations known to the ICO, our committee and other relevant investigatory authorities.”
Facebook has been under scrutiny since allegations surfaced that London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica used data from tens of millions of Facebook accounts to help U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign.
The alleged offenses took place before the rollout of new European Union data protection laws that allow for much larger fines.
Looking wider, the ICO noted that Facebook had been the biggest recipient of digital advertising by political parties and campaigns to date.
Yet, it said, the US firm had neither done enough to explain to its members how they were being targeted as a consequence, nor given them enough control over how their sensitive personal data was used.
As a result, it said, Facebook was guilty of two breaches of the Data Protection Act. The tech firm's chief privacy officer has issued a brief response.
“As we have said before, we should have done more to investigate claims about Cambridge Analytica and take action in 2015,” said Erin Egan.
“We have been working closely with the ICO in their investigation of Cambridge Analytica, just as we have with authorities in the US and other countries. We're reviewing the report and will respond to the ICO soon.”
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Read all commentsTHERE IS A MUCH WORSE PROBLEM with facebook right now in the area of civil communications rights.
Jul 11th, 2018 - 03:49 pm 0No user is safe to freely use the network, though Facebook has placed itself in the singularly important traditional space of functionality and real need the phone or post office services have had in society as a civil right, until today. Hundreds of thousands of users are relying on it, not as a social entertainment network, but as their sole means to talk and communicate with others and with people who matter a great deal to them in organizing their social, professional or educational lives, taking on an emotional dimension at the social scale of life's importance. To give an example, some people only relay on Facebook to stay in touch with an ill bed ridden relative who may need assistance or care at any given time. Other people are on “work stand by” with many of their contacts ... Facebook itself offers you to inform others of important events or group activities, involving even money.
The Problem is that absolutely ANYONE, has the means by which to harm you and have you suspended from accessing all CONTACTS AND ACTIVITIES for indefinite periods of time. It's an egregious Facebook flaw and loophole that incredible nothing is being done about. People can lie for instance, and say they don't know you, when you ask for their friendship, and get you in trouble. Anyone can do a search for words or phrases that are considered a “transgression” you've said to anyone, it doesn't matter who or when, and get you suspended. Moreover Facebook creepily hides from your friends and contacts when you have been “punished” so that no one knows about it, and no one can vouch for you, or question Facebook's decision.
The “rules, reporting and reprimand” facebook system is in reality a device to silence control people's speech and information, by hiding the person who reports you, and making it possible for facebook to be the one to do it, but make it look like a member reported you
Only an IDIOT would entrust any aspect of their lives to something so utterly beyond their ability to influence, control or easily replace.
Jul 11th, 2018 - 04:11 pm 0Have you been barred again Patrick...;-)
Jul 11th, 2018 - 10:44 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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