The Eye Of Media

By James Simons-

The UK’s data protection watchdog, has fined Facebook £500,000 for data breaches.

The Information Commissioner’s Office, which also plans to bring a criminal action against Cambridge Analytical defunct parent company, said Facebook had failed to ensure another company.

The ICO also raised concerns about political parties buying personal information from “data brokers”.

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Another company – Aggregate IQ – which worked with the Vote Leave campaign in the run up to the EU Referendum was also instructed to stop processing UK citizens’ data by the ICO watchdog but still not deemed enough, by critics.

The Information Commissioner’s Office’s announcement of the fine came as it revealed its preparation for a criminal prosecution against Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, SCL Elections Ltd. It has also sent ‘warning letters’ to 11 political parties in the UK. The ICO wants parties to undergo compulsory audits of their use of personal data, including the purchase of marketing lists and lifestyle information to help target voters.

Facebook was also fined 110m euros (£95m) by the European Commission, which also fined google 2.42bn euros . Information commissioner Elizabeth Denham said companies also worried about reputational damage. The impact of behavioural advertising, when it came to elections, was “significant” and called for a code of practice to “fix the system”, she said.

Such a code would ensure that “elections are fair and people understand how they are being micro-targeted”.

The decision comes 16 months after the ICO began its probe into political campaigners’ use of personal data after a whistleblower, Christopher Wylie raised concerns about facebook.

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The ICO found Facebook had breached its own rules and failed to make sure Cambridge Analytica had deleted this personal data.

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