Sony Europe fined £250,000

[slowmo]

Kantor said:

slowmo said:

Kantor said:
I don't get it.

"Your security was insufficient and that caused your customers a great deal of anguish. Now give us money for some reason. No, of course it's not going to the customers, don't be stupid".

The fines probably go towards further prosecutions against corporations who are reckless with consumer data.  I'd rather that occur than the British tax payer funding these cases completely. 

So they pursue these cases to collect money to pursue these cases?

It's a self fulfilling prophecy

The fines like any in the British legal system are a deterrent but more importantly to our government they're revenue generators.  It's the standard excuse they roll out whenever they add more speed cameras.  They argue the money they collect will be used to improve road safety and it gets reinvested in more camera's.  Pay no attention to little bits of information like the fact a speed camera only moves accidents up or down a road when they're added.  I think this is the same with these cases, they argue this is for the best for the public so they can pursue the case, then whatever they collect they can pocket and go after the next target.  The amount is actually tiny but hopefully that's based on the fact that some areas of their security had sufficient protection for this to have not been total negligence.