Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies earlier than the House Energy and Commerce Committee within the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill April 11, 2018 in Washington, DC.
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The Federal Trade Commission permitted an roughly $5 billion settlement with Facebook over the corporate’s 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, an individual aware of the matter advised The Wall Street Journal. Several different information shops individually reported the approval.
The fine represents the biggest ever imposed by the FTC in opposition to a tech firm. Previously, the company’s largest fine in opposition to a tech firm got here in 2012 when Google agreed to pay a $22.5 million penalty due to its privacy practices. The fine would symbolize roughly 9% of Facebook’s 2018 income.
The settlement drew criticism from plenty of senators and Congress members, together with Democratic Sen. Mark Warner.
“Given Facebook’s repeated privacy violations, it is clear that fundamental structural reforms are required,” Warner stated in a press release on Friday. “With the FTC either unable or unwilling to put in place reasonable guardrails to ensure that user privacy and data are protected, it’s time for Congress to act.”
Republican Congressman David Cicilline referred to as the settlement “a slap on the wrist.”
“This fine is a fraction of Facebook’s annual revenue,” he stated in a press release on Friday. “It won’t make them think twice about their responsibility to protect user data.”
Facebook took a one-time cost of $3 billion in anticipation of the FTC fine in April within the firm’s first-quarter outcomes.
The FTC permitted the settlement by a 3-2 vote alongside celebration strains with Republicans in favor and Democrats in opposition to, and can now be reviewed Department of Justice, the report stated.
The FTC and Facebook declined to remark to CNBC.
The FTC started probing Facebook in March 2018 following reports that political consulting agency Cambridge Analytica had accessed the info of 87 million Facebook customers. The company was involved that Facebook had violated the phrases of a 2011 settlement, which required Facebook to give customers very clear notifications when their knowledge was being shared with third events.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/12/ftc-fines-facebook-5-billion-for-privacy-lapses.html