Facebook was today fined just £500K ($645K) for leaking the data of 87 MILLION users.
Britain's data watchdog imposed the maximum possible fine on the US web giant over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
But the punishment was blasted as "paltry" by experts as it emerged Facebook will take just six minutes to pay it off.
The £500,000 fine represents 0.00001 percent of boss Mark Zuckerberg's £43 billion ($61.5 billion) fortune.
Facebook allowed political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest the data of 87 million users around the world without their permission.
The social network apologised and vowed to tighten up its privacy policy after the scandal came to light.
Today Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham announced it was imposing a £500,000 fine, the maximum allowed under the old data protection laws.
Ms Denham added that the fine would "inevitably" have been much bigger if the new GDPR law applied.
Under the new regulation, Facebook could have faced a punishment of more than £1 billion.
The company made more than £10billion in the most recent quarter - meaning it takes in nearly £80,000 every minute.
This post was originally published on Thesun. | image: Reuters
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Britain's data watchdog imposed the maximum possible fine on the US web giant over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
But the punishment was blasted as "paltry" by experts as it emerged Facebook will take just six minutes to pay it off.
The £500,000 fine represents 0.00001 percent of boss Mark Zuckerberg's £43 billion ($61.5 billion) fortune.
Facebook allowed political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest the data of 87 million users around the world without their permission.
The social network apologised and vowed to tighten up its privacy policy after the scandal came to light.
Today Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham announced it was imposing a £500,000 fine, the maximum allowed under the old data protection laws.
Also Read: The legacy of Facebook and Twitter is near to End According to New Study, Instagram and Snapchat are most popular social media platforms among American teensShe said: "Facebook failed to sufficiently protect the privacy of its users before, during and after the unlawful processing of this data. A company of its size and expertise should have known better and it should have done better."
Ms Denham added that the fine would "inevitably" have been much bigger if the new GDPR law applied.
Under the new regulation, Facebook could have faced a punishment of more than £1 billion.
The company made more than £10billion in the most recent quarter - meaning it takes in nearly £80,000 every minute.
This post was originally published on Thesun. | image: Reuters
Read Next: The Widening Cybersecurity Talent Gap (infographic)
