The popular social network Facebookis once again facing legal issues. Specifically, Australian data protection officials are taking Facebook to court over the Cambridge Analytica, which led to the leak of the personal information of approximately 87 million users around the world.
As a result, the company was fined $5 billion by the FTC, which is one of the largest fines ever imposed on a technology company.
However, Australia has stricter laws regarding the personal data of its citizens, so the fine it would impose on Facebook could reach $529 billion, which is about 8 times the company's revenue last year.
Under the country's privacy laws ,a fine of up to $1.7 million could be imposed for each data breach. Australia's privacy watchdog believes that the data of 311,074 local accounts was affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Therefore, the fine could reach about $529 billion.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) posted a statement on its official website saying that Facebook failed to notify affected Australian users about the breach of their personal data. The statement also said that the company “failed to take reasonable steps to protect the personal data of these individuals from unauthorized disclosure.”
In response to this statement, the Australian Privacy Commissioner, Angelene Falk, blamed Facebook for the situation, as she said its design does not allow its users to have greater control over their personal data on the platform.
If Australia finally manages to impose its exorbitant fine on Facebook, it will certainly be a good lesson for other technology companies to take the security of user data more seriously.
