Shell Energy faces a £1.4m fine imposed by telecom regulator Ofcom for a serious breach in communication service rules. Over 70,000 customers weren’t correctly notified about end-of-contract and best tariff options, a grave misstep underscoring the importance of clear, timely communication in service provision. Substantiating the matter, some customers were even misinformed about costs post-contract, leading to unwarranted overpayments.
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued Facebook a penalty notice requiring the payment of £500,000 due to “a very serious data incident”. The fine is the maximum that can be imposed under the United Kingdom’s Data Protection Act 1998, which was the ruling document when the incidents occurred. “We considered these contraventions to be so serious we imposed the maximum penalty under the previous legislation. The fine would inevitably have been significantly higher under the GDPR. One of our main motivations for taking enforcement action is to drive meaningful change in how organisations handle people’s personal data,” commented the UK’s Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham. The data breach incidents occurred between 2007 and 2014, when Facebook failed to properly monitor the developers using the Facebook platform to build apps, and allowed them access to user information without clear consent. This particular case concerned Aleksandr Kogan and his…
