The fine ultimately imposed on Facebook by the UK government for its role in the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal is just $654,000. The scandal resulted in nearly 1 million users in the UK losing their data, while globally that number reaches 87 million.
The fine is equal to the amount Facebook earns in 9 minutes, based on the company's $40.7 billion in revenue in 2017.
The reason behind the tiny amount is that the fine was imposed under the Data Protection Act 1998, which was still in force when the scandal occurred. If the scandal had arisen under the newly implemented GDPR, it would have had to pay an amount equal to up to 4% of its annual revenue, which could be a huge and significant amount.
The UK Information Commissioner's Office said: "The ICO's investigation found that between 2007 and 2014, Facebook unreasonably processed users' personal information by allowing developers to access their information without their adequate, clear and informed consent.
According to the statement, “after considering the representations from the company, the ICO issued the fine to Facebook and confirmed that the amount – the maximum permitted by the laws in force at the time the incidents occurred – will remain unchanged.”.
The infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal raised serious concerns about user privacy, and the social media giant received massive criticism from both the government and users.
