Facebook is appealing the £500,000 fine levied by the UK’s data watchdog over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the social network has confirmed. It says the decision taken by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is unjustified, and that the regulator found no evidence that UK users specifically had their information improperly shared. The news comes on the day Facebook’s right to appeal was due to expire.
Facebook to appeal UK regulator’s Cambridge Analytica fine
Claims the ruling threatens ‘basic principles’ of how people share information online
Claims the ruling threatens ‘basic principles’ of how people share information online
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Facebook’s lawyer, Anna Benckert, said that the ICO’s fine “no longer relates to the events involving Cambridge Analytica” because it has found “no evidence” that Facebook users in the UK had their information shared with the analytics company. The lawyer’s statement goes on to say that this broadens the reasoning behind the ICO’s fine, meaning it could threaten “the basic principles of how people should be allowed to share information online.” The company argues, for example, that it would prevent people from forwarding messages without the original author’s explicit consent.
“The core of the ICO’s argument no longer relates to the events involving Cambridge Analytica.”
Although Facebook has confirmed that it will appeal the decision, when contacted for comment the tribunal in charge of evaluating appeals against the ICO said it has yet to receive an appeal from the social network. The ICO confirmed that it had yet to be notified that an appeal had been received.
The ICO issued the fine in late October. At the time, the regulator said that Facebook hadn’t treated its users’ data with due care, handing their personal information to third-party developers without clear and informed consent. Especially problematic was the fact that Aleksandr Kogan’s myPersonality app was able to harvest a user’s data even if they hadn’t enabled the app themselves.
Facebook has admitted that it made mistakes that allowed Cambridge Analytica’s data misuse to take place, and it has said that it has closed the loopholes in its platform that enabled such broad data access. Now, it seems it’s attempting to frame its objection to the fine (which is, by all accounts, absolutely tiny compared to Facebook’s overall revenue) as a fight for basic internet freedoms.
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Richard Lawler and Lauren Feiner
