Facebook faces R9m data fine

FACEBOOK could be fined £500 000 (R9 million) by the UK’s privacy regulator after the social network giant failed to prevent key user data falling into the hands of a political consultancy that allegedly helped get President Donald Trump elected. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office is threatening the company with the maximum penalty allowed, it said yesterday when issuing its first findings in a probe that looked at some 30 organisations. The tech giant is accused of not properly protecting how people’s data was harvested. It also said several overseas regulators and agencies had requested updates for their own investigations. – Bloomberg