O Facebook continues to be the target of criticism regarding the privacy of users and their data, and now the Brazilian authorities are the latest to take action against the platform.
The Ministry of Justice of Brazil confirmed that it had imposed a fine of 6.6 million reais, which corresponds to about 1.3 million euros, to Facebook for allegedly disclosing personal data of 443.000 users in Brazil, as part of the case with Cambridge Analytica.
It should be noted that this fine had already been applied to Facebook in December last year, but after a request from the social network to defend itself, it was lifted. However, given the information provided by the social network, the authorities consider that this is not enough to lift the fine.
Regarding the case, Facebook claimed that there was no evidence that users in Brazil had been affected by the Cambridge Analytica case, and as such, the company could not be penalized. However, the defense was not enough.
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The authorities consider that it has been proven that data from users in Brazil were actually used on Cambridge Analytica in 2018, when the whole situation began to be reported on the social network. At the time, the personal data of almost 87 million users were sent from the social network to Cambridge Analytica.
Of these data, the authorities consider that 443 were associated with users in Brazil, and that they would have been used for users to receive content associated with Donald Trump's campaign in the USA.
The indictment also states that Facebook used dedicated applications for market research to collect this information, even from users who were not active on Facebook.
Facebook can still appeal this decision, however, by carrying out this measure, it is also leaving aside the possibility of having a 25% reduction in the amount of the fine that will be applied.
