Alleged data breach hits share price

On 23 March 2018, investigators from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ‘raided’ the London offices of Cambridge Analytica on foot of a High Court warrant. 

It has been alleged that the data of 50 million Facebook users may have been ‘harvested’ and used to influence the outcomes of both the US Presidential election and the #Brexit Referendum in 2016.

A spokesman for the ICO said: ‘This is one part of a larger investigation by the ICO into the use of personal data and analytics by political campaigns, parties, social media companies and other commercial actors.’ 

As things stand, should the ICO find any wrong doing on the part of either Cambridge Analytica or Facebook, the maximum financial penalty that may be imposed under the current Data Protection Act 1998 is £500,000. 

The advent of a new EU wide data privacy regime (#GDPR) from 25 May 2018 will see that figure rise to a potential £20m levy. 

That said, with a reported $46bn wiped off the value of Facebook’s shares last week, the fall out may be much greater.

For more information about this article, or any other aspect of our business and personal legal solutions, call us on 028 9032 2998.  The is no charge for initial telephone advices.