Brazil fines Facebook $1.6 mn in Cambridge Analytica case

The case was investigated after the media reported in April 2018 that Brazilian Facebook users may have fallen victim to the misuse of their data by the now defunct British data analytics and consulting company Cambridge Analytica.

According to the government, there was evidence that there was an "abusive" practice when it came to the data of these users by Facebook Inc and Facebook Serviços Online do Brasil Ltd, Efe news reported.

"It is clear that data from the approximately 4,43,000 users of the platform were in misuse by the developers of thisisyourdigitallife application for at least questionable purposes," concluded the Department of Consumer Protection (DPDC), which depends on the Ministry, as cited in a statement released on Monday.

The data analysis company, which allegedly collaborated with the team of US President Donald Trump during the 2016 election campaign, has said it used data provided by Facebook to develop a computer programme designed to predict the decisions of voters and exert influence.

At that time, the DPDC was attentive to the testimony that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave before the US Congress, which justified the opening of a process against the company as well as an investigation into the alleged leak that affected Brazilian users.

According to Facebook, of the nearly 87 million people who had their data exposed, some 4,43,000 are users in Brazil and they have already been notified about what happened.

The fine on Facebook by Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security comes after US regulators earlier this month said that Cambridge Analytica engaged in deceptive practices to harvest personal information from tens of millions of Facebook users for voter profiling and targeting.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it also found that Cambridge Analytica engaged in deceptive practices relating to its participation in the EU-US Privacy Shield framework a pact which allows companies to transfer consumer data legally from European Union countries to the US.

The ruling came after Facebook in July agreed to pay a record-breaking $5 billion to the FTC as fine for users' privacy violations in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving millions of users.

( With inputs from IANS )