Facebook to Pay $5B FTC Fine for Privacy Violations, Zuckerberg on the Hook for Compliance
LAST WARNING
Facebook will pay a record $5 billion fine and be forced to improve its data-privacy practices in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. “The $5 billion penalty against Facebook is the largest ever imposed on any company for violating consumers’ privacy and almost 20 times greater than the largest privacy or data-security penalty ever imposed worldwide,” the FTC said in a statement Wednesday. “It is one of the largest penalties ever assessed by the U.S. government for any violation.” The federal probe into Facebook began more than a year ago following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which data on tens of millions of Facebook users was improperly transferred. The settlement includes a requirement that Mark Zuckerberg personally certifies that the company is in compliance with new privacy rules, and states that he could be subject to civil and criminal penalties if he certifies falsely. A new committee of Facebook’s board must also be created to monitor the company’s privacy practices.