https://qz.com/1325687/facebooks-cambridge-analytica-fine-is-worth-15-minutes-of-profit/

The UK’s data privacy watchdog didn’t mince words about Facebook’s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal: The social media giant “contravened the law by failing to safeguard” the information of 87 million people, it said. As a result, the company is facing the maximum fine the regulator can impose.

But that’s much more of a poke than a whack: Facebook must pay a piddling £500,000 ($662,000), the most severe penalty allowed under the rules that prevailed at the time of the alleged wrongdoing. The EU’s much stricter General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which took effect earlier this year, does not apply to Facebook’s case. And good thing for Mark Zuckerberg and company: The maximum fine under GDPR is 4% of global revenue, which would be worth nearly $2 billion for Facebook.