Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill April 11, 2018 in Washington, DC.
The Federal Trade Commission approved an approximately $5 billion settlement with Facebook over the company's 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Several other news outlets separately reported the approval.
The fine represents the largest ever imposed by the FTC against a tech company. Previously, the agency's largest fine against a tech company came in 2012 when Google agreed to pay a $22.5 million penalty due to its privacy practices. The fine would represent approximately 9% of Facebook's 2018 revenue.
The settlement drew criticism from a number of senators and Congress members, including Democratic Sen. Mark Warner.
"Given Facebook's repeated privacy violations, it is clear that fundamental structural reforms are required," Warner said in a statement 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."
Derperlicious on July 12nd, 2019 at 22:31 UTC »
oh shit, they are going to have to sell so fucking much of our data to pay for that fine.
JJJup on July 12nd, 2019 at 20:45 UTC »
Fine? It's a settlement - it's a onetime pay-off to end the investigation into them and continue printing money thanks to our data.
The-Last-American on July 12nd, 2019 at 20:25 UTC »
I'm sure Facebook has a couch with some deep cushions somewhere they can pull the money from.