The United Kingdom, May 7: A UK data privacy watchdog group, Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has reportedly ordered Cambridge Analytica to return all of the personal data it collected from an American professor amidst the Facebook privacy scandal. The ICO noted that even non-British citizens have the right to seek and obtain data held by a British firm. The company has 30 days to comply with the request submitted by Professor David Caroll.

Failing to do so, the company will be charged on account of violating the Data Protection Act of 1998 and will be committing a criminal offense under which it can be punished by an unlimited fine, Digital Trends has reported. The professor had previously sought access to the data the firm had collected about him. However, he was not convinced with the limited explanations provided to him. Cambridge Analytica is accused of wrongfully accessing the data of over 87 million Facebook users to build political tools which allegedly influenced the US elections.