The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has confirmed its intention to fine Facebook a maximum GBP 500,000 for two breaches of the Data Protection Act. This follows an investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns. Facebook will have the chance to respond to the Notice of Intent, after which the ICO will make a final decision.
The ICO opened an investigation in March 2017 into the misuse of data by campaigns on both sides of the EU Referendum in 2016. This was expanded in May to include political parties, data analytics companies and major social media platforms.
The ICO's progress report, published on 10 July, details some of the individuals and organisations under investigation and enforcement actions to date. The ICO has been investigating Facebook, along with Cambridge Analytica, after it emerged that the data of 50 million Facebook users worldwide had been harvested. This has since increased to 87 million Facebook users. The ICO concluded that Facebook violated by law by by failing to safeguard users' information, and failing to be transparent about how user data was harvested by third parties.
