The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined Facebook a record sum of $5 billion to settle privacy concerns. The $5bn fine is believed to be the biggest ever imposed on any company for violating consumers’ privacy.
Facebook was found involved in collecting personal user data in March 2018. It was revealed that personal data was illegally harvested from an online personality quiz and sold to Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm. This followed up with a series of claims that the data harvested may have been used to influence 2016 US presidential Elections which Donald trump won defeating Hillary Clinton. There were subsequent claims the data may have been used to try and influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election and the UK Brexit referendum. Facebook is facing a services of fines and in October 2018 was fined £500,000 by the UK’s data protection watchdog for its role in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
As per FTC website, Facebook, Inc. will pay a record-breaking $5 billion penalty, and submit to new restrictions and a modified corporate structure that will hold the company accountable for the decisions it makes about its users’ privacy, to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company violated a 2012 FTC order by deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information.
