Stefan Mileschin

Cambridge Analytica data breach could cost Facebook billions

Australia’s privacy watchdog is suing Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica data breach — which, back in 2018, became a global scandal that wiped billions off the tech giant’s share price, yet only led to Facebook being slapped around the chips with a wet bus ticket by US and UK watchdogs.

Should Australia win in its suit against the tech giant the monetary penalty could be exponentially larger. Australia’s Privacy Act sets out a provision for a civil penalty of up to $1,700,000 to be levied per contravention — and the national watchdog believes there were 311,074 local Facebook users in the cache of ~86M profiles lifted by Cambridge Analytica . So the potential fine here is circa $529 billion aussie dollars. For the record, Facebook payed £500,000 Facebook in the UK over the same data misuse scandal.

In a statement published on its website today the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) says it has lodged proceedings against Facebook in a federal court alleging the company committed serious and/or repeated interferences with privacy.

https://fudzilla.com/news/50453-aust...-with-facebook