Facebook Refuses To Pay UK Fine In Cambridge Analytica Scandal

Facebook does not agree to pay the fine of GBP 500,000 (approximately $644,000) for failing its job to ensure the privacy of the users in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The social network argued that regulators in the UK could not find any evidence that Britain users’ data were directly accessed.

The ICO (Information Commissioner Office) in Britain ruled the fine after confirming that Facebook did not treat its users’ data with care by giving third party’s app developers access to their data without any permission.

According to the ICO, after revealed to third-party developers, an amount of data was passed on to other entities including the SCL Group, Cambridge Analytica's parent company. For the record, the SCL Group counted the election campaign for President Donald Trump in 2016, besides other clients.

The ICO did not insist that the data of UK users was used in the campaign, but the data could be under other types of misuse.

Although the fine is tiny compared to Facebook’s enormous profit, Facebook appealed due to its reasoning of an undesirable idea to its users by the decision.

Anna Benckert – Facebook’s lawyer – stated that the ICO’s ruling on the fine is beyond the events of Cambridge Analytica because it relates to the basic regulations of how users should be permitted to share their information online.

Benckert took an example in users' daily activities. She said that based on ICO's theory, users should not have permission to forward messages or email addresses to third parties without the approval from the owners. But in fact, this kind of data sharing happens every day across millions of users.

Facebook has admitted that it made mistakes that resulted in Cambridge Analytica’s data misuse, as a consequence, it had stated that the loopholes had been closed in its platforms in order to prevent such incident from happening again.

The ICO did not immediately respond about the appeal.