Facebook Fined 5 Billion Dollars Over Privacy Breaches
Facebook just got hit with a $5 billion fine over their privacy practices.
As explained by CNN, the social media platform has settled with the Federal Trade Commission over an investigation into how the company lost control over personal data. The fine is also meant to punish them for how they mishandled communication with users.
“The deal comes amid growing calls in Washington for greater transparency and accountability for technical companies, whose power over social media movements as well as personal information has increasingly come to be seen as dangerous by politicians, users, and even one of Facebook’s co-founders.”
The FTC claims that Facebook “used deceptive disclosures and settings,” and violated prior agreements that were put into place in 2012. They also misused users’ phone numbers for target advertisements, and they lied about facial recognition features.
In charging the platform with this hefty fine, the FTC hopes to punish future violations and to alter Facebook’s entire privacy culture.
This is currently the largest fine in FTC history.
Fun fact: $5 billion is only about a month’s worth of revenue for Facebook.
