Facebook fined $1.65 million by Brazil in Cambridge Analytica case

Brazil has fined Facebook $1.65 million for improperly sharing users’ data in a case linked to the global Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Facebook engaged in an “abusive practice” by allowing data from 443,000 users in Brazil to be unduly available to developers of the application “This is Your Digital Life,” according to the Ministry of Justice.

That application — a psychological survey — collected personal data from millions of Facebook users worldwide, which were then transferred to British consultancy Cambridge Analytica and used without consent in political campaigns, such as the one that gave Brexit a victory in Britain and Donald Trump a win in the 2016 US presidential election.

Brazilian authorities began investigating after reports that users in the country could also have been victims of data misuse.