FACEBOOK was today fined just £500,000 for leaking the data of 87 MILLION users.

Britain's data watchdog imposed the maximum possible fine on the US web giant over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

But the punishment was blasted as "paltry" by experts as it emerged Facebook will take just six minutes to pay it off.

The £500,000 fine represents 0.00001 per cent of boss Mark Zuckerberg's £43billion fortune.

Facebook allowed political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest the data of 87 million users around the world without their permission.

The social network apologised and vowed to tighten up its privacy policy after the scandal came to light.

Today Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham announced it was imposing a £500,000 fine, the maximum allowed under the old data protection laws.

She said: "Facebook failed to sufficiently protect the privacy of its users before, during and after the unlawful processing of this data.

"A company of its size and expertise should have known better and it should have done better."

Ms Denham added that the fine would "inevitably" have been much bigger if the new GDPR law applied.

Under the new regulation, Facebook could have faced a punishment of more than £1billion.

The company made more than £10billion in the most recent quarter - meaning it takes in nearly £80,000 every minute.

Tech expert Jamie Bartlett said the "paltry fine" was a result of the watchdog's limited powers, adding: "£500,000 is loose change for Facebook."

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson added: "Facebook deserve every penny of this fine, and more. A sum like this is a drop in the ocean for such a tech giant."

The punishment comes less than a week after ex-Deputy PM Nick Clegg was appointed as Facebook's head of communications.