WIREDGOV

In an opinion piece published on Saturday 30 March in The Washington Post, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg called for more regulation of the internet. He said there are four areas where more oversight is necessary: harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability.

Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham yesterday said:

“In light of Mark Zuckerberg’s statements over the weekend about the need for increased regulation across four areas, including privacy, I expect Facebook to review their current appeal against the ICO’s £500,000 fine - the maximum available under the old rules —  for contravening UK privacy laws.”

On 27 November 2018, Ms Denham told the International Grand Committee that her office had fined Facebook because it failed to respect people’s privacy in line with basic data protection laws. Laws that have been around in the UK for over 30 years. Ms Denham said the fine was about “pretty basic data protection: notice and transparency and control and the release of users’ profile information without their knowledge and consent”.

Further Reading

• Read Ms Denham's oral evidence to the International Grand Committee