UK data watchdog fines Facebook 17 minutes of net profit for Cambridge Analytica brouhaha The UK's Information Commissioner has formally fined Facebook £500,000 – the maximum available – over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In a monetary penalty notice issued this morning, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) stated that the social media network had broken two of the UK's legally binding data protection …
As I keep saying, these companies are run by kids who never learned to grow up. About time someone took 'em round back of the outhouse and gave 'em a spanking. Shame they managed to sneak it in pre-GDPR, £500k is small change to the billions Zuck rakes in from selling his user's to the highest bidders. I'm sure FB will slip up again soon post-GDPR and then we'll get something decent off FB.
True maybe but we can also argue, as I've seen it myself, where "Companies are run by old timers" who know how to play the system, to do fuck all but get paid lots of money for it. And then abuse the juniors as they are all just "kids" and don't realise they are allowed to stand up to the old fuck.
I'm sure FB will slip up again soon post-GDPR and then we'll get something decent off FB
I wish I was. I work in a sector where regulatory fines based on "up to 10% of turnover" are written into law. Companies regularly do get fined sums that total hundreds of millions. But on the basis of observing how this works in practice, I am confident that scabby outfits like Facezuck will get fined a lot more, and I'm even more confident that the fines will be a gnat bite on their huge pimply arse.
Until regulators have the power (and they use it) to suspend a company's sales operations, there will be no material change. In my sector, over a quarter of a billion quid of fines have not had that much effect, but I can assure you that director's blood ran cold* when the regulator imposed a two week ban on sales on one company.
* I know, they're all lizards, but you get my drift.
LEDSWINGER> Citation needed. As a broad rule, fines and regulatory penalties are not tax deductible. There's a few nuances, but unless you can substantiate that an ICO penalty is tax deductible, I say it isn't.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-80-billion-in-coporate-fines-can-become-48-billion-in-tax-breaks/
Transfer the cost to Facebook USA: Boom.
While the fine is indeed of no consequence to Facebook as such, their prior infringements should weight against them when* the GDPR is applied to their misdeeds in the future, resulting in higher fines. As it happens there is an explicit provision for that in Section 3 Article 83 (e) (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32016R0679).
* I have little doubt that "when" not "if" is appropriate here.
Until users of social media are educated to not post all their personal details onto these platforms their will always be situations like this where their data will get abused.
I no longer have a Facebook account, but do have an Instagram account, and yet even though its registered on a different throw away email address and not my personal email and I used the app not a browser to login to Instagram. I still get ads popping up for items I have searched for on Google, Amazon etc. within the Instagram app. So therefore their is clearly some tracking going on based on my device profile, IP address or some other data they are able to slurp without my knowledge to track what I have been looking at on the internet. It is scary how much data these companies must hold on individuals who happily share all their personal info with them based on what they can obtain from someone who shares very little on there.
I no longer have a Facebook account,... So therefore their is clearly some tracking going on based on my device profile, IP address or some other data they are able to slurp without my knowledge to track what I have been looking at on the internet.
Having no FB account doesn't stop them ILLEGALLY profiling them. To start with, they won't have deleted anything when you deleted your account - your data is too valuable to them for them ever delete anything !
It is clear (look up some of the details in the Max Schrems case) that they keep a very detailed profile on people - and if you think about it, some of it isn't hard to do. One of the things they do is to nag users to "just upload your contacts so we can invite them" - and people are daft enough to do it (also illegal). Say one person uploads you home phone/email and another uploads your work details - FB can now tie your personal and work details together.
But the online tracking is also intrusive, pervasive, and sneaky. Ever noticed all those sites with a little "f" logo on them ? When those icons, as well as doing something related to FB, hide tracking code that allows FB to harvest a lot of information about your browsing habits. Very similar approach to the tracking Google does via it's tracking code disguised as statistics gathering for the site owner.
The Chinese Cyber Protection Act (no tittering at the back) allows for detention of corporate officers during the investigation of breaches. The prospect of being detained in a Chinese jail far outweighs the paltry 120K penalty - sort of gets the attention. Perhaps we can arrange some sort of deal whereby UK cases include being detained in a Chinese jail while ICO considers things...
£250,000 ad campaign urges voters to oppose May’s Brexit plan
Anonymously run campaign on Facebook urges voters to ‘tell your MP to bin Chequers.
The people behind these campaigns don't seem to give a tiny toss, there'll be another shell company along in a minute. Facebook is letting this happen.
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