Facebook's efforts to restore trust in Germany following its massive data breach hit a major snag on Friday.

The city-state of Hamburg's Data Protection Commissioner, Johannes Caspar, informed the internet giant that he had opened his own probe into alleged data abuse on the platform. If any German users' data was found to have been breached, Facebook could face a fine of up to €300,000 ($370,000).

Read more: Facebook rolls out new privacy policy under stricter EU rules

If German user data were found to have been harvested by Cambridge Analytica, "this would be a collection without legal basis, which is unacceptable," Caspar said.

Caspar's spokesman, Martin Schemm, said that the privacy watchdog would first seek a statement from Facebook before hearings begin. Facebook's German headquarters are based in Hamburg.

Facebook has been at the center of allegations that Russia influenced the 2016 US presidential election via the platform through a barrage of fake news and misleading political ads. It then emerged last month that the personal data of some 87 million Facebook users had been harvested by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy firm employed by Donald Trump's presidential campaign team.

Although a €300,000 fine would hardly make a dent in Facebook's coffers — the company's recorded revenue totaled over $40 billion last year — it does fire a warning shot ahead of the European Union's upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The new privacy rules could see online firms face fines of up to 4 percent of worldwide revenues for serious violations of data stored in EU.

Read more: Who needs privacy anyway?

German lawmakers unimpressed by Facebook boss' assurances

Earlier on Friday, Joel Kaplan, Facebook's vice president for global public policy, met with German lawmakers in Berlin to share how the platform intends to make political advertising more transparent ahead of October's Bavarian state election.

Kaplan told lawmakers that Facebook would allow only authorized advertisers to run electoral ads and that these would be clearly labelled.

Facebook will also roll out a new "view ads" feature, allowing users to see all the ads being run by a particular advertiser.

Who's who in the Cambridge Analytica scandal? The faces behind the scandal Facebook has been slammed for failing to protect the data of more than 50 million users. Their data was used to further conservative political projects, including Brexit and Donald Trump's presidential victory. From a former White House strategist to a Canadian whistle blower, here are the people involved in what some are describing as Facebook's largest data breach.

Who's who in the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Whistleblower who hacked Facebook A 28-year-old Canadian data analytics expert first blew the whistle on the scandal to Britain’s Observer newspaper. Christopher Wylie claims he set up the project for Cambridge Analytica and helped forge ties with Donald Trump’s campaign. He revealed that millions of profiles were hijacked to influence the election. Cambridge Analytica says Wylie has been "misrepresenting himself and the company."

Who's who in the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Cambridge Analytica boss Cambridge Analytica CEO, Alexander Nix, was one of several senior executives filmed by an undercover reporter from Britain's Channel 4. Nix claimed credit for Donald Trump's 2016 electoral victory. He also said his political consultancy could feed untraceable messages on social media. Executives bragged that the firm could use misinformation, bribery and even prostitutes to help win elections.

Who's who in the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Psychology academic behind Facebook app A Moldovan-born Cambridge University researcher developed a personality app that harvested the personal data of 30 million Facebook users. Aleksandr Kogan said he passed the information to Cambridge Analytica, under assurances that what he was doing was legal. But now he says the research firm and Facebook are scapegoating him over the scandal.

Who's who in the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Facebook chief was 'deceived' over data use Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was criticized for waiting for four days to respond to the scandal. His social media network claims to be the victim of the whole saga, insisting it was unaware of how the data was being used. Still, Zuckerberg has been summoned by the British and European parliaments, while US consumer regulators have launched an investigation into the firm's use of personal data.

Who's who in the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Trump strategist with Cambridge links Trump's former strategist Steve Bannon helped develop the populist, anti-Washington message that helped the billionaire win the White House. A founding member of right-wing outlet Breitbart News, Bannon is a former board member of Cambridge Analytica and brought in wealthy businessman Robert Mercer as a financial backer. He left the White House last August and Trump has since cut him off. Author: Nik Martin



"We will be able to roll out the first phase of our transparency efforts — the view ads tool — this summer in time for the Bavarian state elections," Kaplan said, according to his prepared remarks.

However, lawmakers came away from the meeting dissatisfied, saying Kaplan had failed to clarify how widespread the data leak had been.

"We just experienced another slice of Facebook's salami tactics," the Christian Democrats' digital policy spokesman Thomas Jarzombek said.

Read more: Germany demands answers from Facebook over data breach

Tabea Rössner of the Greens told German business daily Handelsblatt that the hearing had shown Facebook was still in "business as usual" mode. "That disrespects those affected," she said.

The "view ads" feature is already available in Canada and is slated to be rolled out in Ireland ahead of the country's abortion referendum on May 25.DW editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.

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dm/msh (Reuters, dpa)