Facebook Set To Pay Largest Fine To Date

Credit: Leah Millis/Reuters

Facebook is facing a $5 billion fine from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over violations of consumers’ privacy rights.

Facebook is facing a record-setting fine (both for them and the FTC, which has never set a fine this large over privacy rights) as the company promises to adopt new protections for users’ data. “We’ve agreed to pay a historic fine, but even more important, we’re going to make some major structural changes to how we build products and run this company,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on Facebook. The “historic” fine comes as a part of a settlement. The settlement concludes a year-long investigation into Facebook prompted by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Now, the social network must adopt a system of checks and balances that would be put into effect on Facebook and its companion services Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook is also expected to start a data security program which would include protections for user information.

While Facebook just settled its main problem with the FTC, it’s also agreed to a smaller settlement of $100 million with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC brought data misuse charges to Facebook separately. “As alleged in our complaint, Facebook presented the risk of misuse of users data as hypothetical when they knew user data had in fact been misused,” Co-director of the SEC’s enforcement division Stephanie Avakian said in a statement.

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