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The US Federal Trade Commission has reportedly agreed to end its latest investigation into Facebook's privacy concerns with a $ 5 billion payout.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the vote by 3 votes against the party line of the FTC commissioners was adopted by the Republican majority and will be transferred to the civilian division of the Ministry of Justice to be finalized.
A payment of $ 5 billion seems to be a significant amount, but Facebook had already set aside $ 3 billion to cover the cost of settlement and the company could probably offset that figure with less than a quarter of revenue ( business income for the last fiscal quarter). was about $ 15 billion). Indeed, Facebook said in April that it planned to spend up to $ 5 billion to end the government's investigation.
The settlement will also include government restrictions on how Facebook treats users' privacy, according to the newspaper.
We reached out to the FTC and Facebook to comment and update this story when we hear again.
In the end, the partisan cleavage that blocked the settlement was shattered as Republican members of the commission overcame Democrats' concerns over increased surveillance of the social media giant.
Lawmakers have consistently called for increased regulatory oversight of Facebook – and even a legislative effort to dissolve the company – since the revelation of the company's incorrect treatment of private data from millions of Facebook users during the period that preceded the presidential election of 2016. was not collected correctly by Cambridge Analytica.
More specifically, the FTC was investigating whether the data breach violated a 2012 consent decree in which Facebook committed to strengthening the privacy protection of users' data.
Facebook's problems did not stop with Cambridge Analytica . Since then, the company has received a lot of information about the misuse and misuse of its customers' information. It was launched as a result of calls to dismantle major technology companies.
The regulation could also allow the company to evade more stringent supervision as it faces investigations into its potentially anti-competitive business practices and the launch of a new cryptocurrency, Libra, presented as an electronic tool. currency for Facebook users largely disassociated from the government's monetary policy.
Potential sanctions proposed by lawmakers for the FTC included the possibility of entrusting the company's board of directors with the monitoring of privacy and, possibly, removing monitoring data; restrict the collection of certain information; limit ad targeting and restrict the flow of user data between different business units of Facebook.
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