Facebook has agreed to pay a GBP 500,000 (roughly Rs. 4.57 crores)
fine for breaches of data protection law related to the harvesting of
data by consultancy Cambridge Analytica, Britain's information rights
regulator said on Wednesday.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
has faced questioning by US and EU lawmakers over how the political
consultancy obtained the personal data of 87 million Facebook users from
a researcher.
The Information Commissioner's Office issued the
small but symbolic fine last year after it said data from at least one
million British users had been among the information harvested by
Cambridge Analytica and used for political purposes.
On Wednesday
the ICO said that in dropping its appeal and agreeing to pay the fine,
Facebook had not made an admission of liability.
"The
ICO's main concern was that UK citizen data was exposed to a serious
risk of harm. Protection of personal information and personal privacy is
of fundamental importance," said ICO Deputy Commissioner James
Dipple-Johnstone.
"We are pleased to hear that Facebook has taken,
and will continue to take, significant steps to comply with the
fundamental principles of data protection."
Facebook said it was
pleased to have reached a settlement and the company wished it had done
more to investigate the claims about Cambridge Analytica in 2015.
"We
made major changes to our platform back then, significantly restricting
the information app developers could access," said Harry Kinmouth,
Facebook's Associate General Counsel.
"Protecting people's
information and privacy is a top priority for Facebook, and we are
continuing to build new controls to help people protect and manage their
information."
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