About a year ago, UK privacy advocates fined Facebook £ 500,000 (around € 580,000). They saw it as proven that the corporation had granted app developers access to customer data without any legal basis.
The trigger was the data scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica. The analytics company had received Facebook user data from Aleksandr Kogan, who in turn had collected it on a self-developed "personality test" app on Facebook. What many participants may not have known: The app also collected data about their Facebook friends.
Facebook had initially filed an appeal against the fine, but now agreed to the payment. However, this is not a confession of Facebook, said the UK Department of Data Protection and Freedom of Information, ICO, on Wednesday.
With the DSGVO a higher fine would have been possible
The fine corresponds to the maximum penalty possible at that time, as it was measured according to the data protection law applicable in Great Britain at the time of the offense. Had already the European Data Protection General Regulation (GDPR) seized, a much higher fine would have been possible.
The British analysis firm Cambridge Analytica had collected the data of at least one million Britons and used for political purposes. Facebook said it welcomes the agreement and regrets that it did not address more closely the allegations against Cambridge Analytica in 2015.
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