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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has faced questioning by U.S. 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 1
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."
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by David Goodman)
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