London, Jul 11: The chairman of the UK Parliament's media committee says the government office that investigated the Cambridge Analytica scandal has fined Facebook 500,000 pounds (USD 663,000) for failing to safeguard users' data.

Damian Collins said the Information Commissioner's Office concluded that Facebook "contravened the law by failing to safeguard people's information."

Collins said today that the company "should now make the results of their internal investigations known to the ICO, our committee and other relevant investigatory authorities."

Facebook has been under scrutiny since allegations surfaced that London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica used data from tens of millions of Facebook accounts to help US President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign. The alleged offences took place before the rollout of new European Union data protection laws that allow for much larger fines.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)