Nov 21, 2018

Facebook appeals Cambridge Analytica fine

Facebook has appealed a fine imposed on it by the UK's data watchdog following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The affair stems from the discovery that an academic at the University of Cambridge - Dr Aleksandr Kogan - used a personality quiz to harvest up to 87 million Facebook users' details. Cambridge Analytica said it had only ever licensed data belonging to about 30 million people, and a probe by the Information Commissioner's Office found no evidence that UK citizens were among them. "The ICO's investigation stemmed from concerns that UK citizens' data may have been impacted by Cambridge Analytica, yet they now have confirmed that they have found no evidence to suggest that information of Facebook users in the UK was ever shared by Dr Kogan with Cambridge Analytica, or used by its affiliates in the Brexit referendum," said a statement from Facebook's lawyer Anna Benckert. "Therefore, the core of the ICO's argument no longer relates to the events involving Cambridge Analytica. Instead, their reasoning challenges some of the basic principles of how people should be allowed to share information online, with implications which go far beyond just Facebook, which is why we have chosen to appeal."

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