Facebook confronts U.K. on its privacy scandal



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LONDON – Facebook faces its first financial penalty for allowing the exploration company to Cambridge Analytica data from

A British government office that investigated the Cambridge Analytica scandal has announced its intention to fine Facebook 500,000 pounds ($ 663,000) for failing to protect this information . The amount is the maximum that the agency, the Information Commissioner's Office, can charge for violation of UK data privacy laws.

The sentence is a pittance for Facebook, which generates this sum about every seven minutes. business figure of $ 11.97 billion. But this would be the first tangible punishment for the company's corporate privacy scandal, which tarnished its reputation, temporarily delayed its actions and forced CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Congress, but without lasting repercussions. .

Cambridge Analytica, London This firm, funded by wealthy Republican donors, worked for the Trump campaign in 2016 and for a time employed Steve Bannon, CEO of the Trump campaign and later advisor to the White House [19659009] Facebook said that the company had illegal access to personal information. users via an academic intermediary, although the company said the number was much lower than that. According to Christopher Wylie, a former data researcher at Cambridge Analytica, a whistleblower, the firm was looking to establish psychographic profiles that she could use to influence the votes of susceptible individuals.

Cambridge Analytica closed in May.

that Facebook "broke the law by failing to protect people's information" and did not inform its users "of how their information was harvested by others." The decision of the office is not final yet. Facebook will have the opportunity to respond to the findings, after which the bureau will make a final judgment.

Damian Collins, chairman of the media committee of the British Parliament, said Wednesday that the company "should now make the results of their"

Facebook's chief privacy officer, Erin Egan, has said in a statement that the company was reviewing the OIC report and that it would respond shortly, adding: "As we have already said, we should have done more to investigate Cambridge Analytica and act in 2015. "

Facebook faces several other investigations, including others in Europe, an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and, apparently, several other federal agencies such as the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission

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