Facebook has lost control of our data. Now he pays a record fine of $ 5 billion

Facebook is burning a record. The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that Facebook had agreed to pay a $ 5 billion fine for breach of privacy and its inability to inform tens of millions of users of a data leak that occurred years ago. The fine is the largest that the US regulator levied against a technology company.

The settlement will require Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, along with other designated compliance officers, to certify that the company is taking steps to protect the privacy of users. A false statement could potentially expose them to penalties. This order also removes some of Zuckerberg's control over confidentiality decisions by creating an independent confidentiality committee comprised of the company's board of directors.

"Despite repeated promises to its billions of users around the world to control the sharing of their personal information, Facebook has compromised consumer choices," said FTC Chairman Joe Simons in a statement. "The recovery is intended not only to punish future violations, but, more importantly, to change Facebook's privacy culture to reduce the risk of further violations."

The multi-billion dollar fine – which adds to a $ 100 million settlement with the US Securities Exchange Commission – marks the first significant sanction that Facebook has received for the storm of privacy and security scandals that has engulfed the company for more than a year. The problems, ranging from spreading false information to poorly secured personal data, have prompted governments around the world to consider regulating social networks.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday in a statement that the social network would bring "major structural changes" to the way it builds products and drives business.

"We have a responsibility to protect people's privacy," wrote Zuckerberg. "We are already working hard to take on this responsibility, but we will now set a new standard for our industry."

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The settlement reached by the FTC could mark a turning point in the way governments treat social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for reprehensible behavior. Over the years, stalkers, trolls and propagandists have taken advantage of sites, which often do not strictly adhere to their own rules. This has created increasingly toxic environments in which personal attacks, hatred and misinformation spread. It has also allowed governments to exploit sites, such as the illegal influence of Russia during the 2016 US presidential election.

Although the United States is just beginning to work on mastering technologies, the European Union and the United Kingdom are strengthening the privacy of their citizens. The EU has started to enforce the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a general law that requires companies to let people control their data and to inform them quickly in case of mishandling of such data. At the same time, the UK is considering new regulatory roles within the government to protect Internet users' interests and punish businesses that do not. But none of them has yet taken on Facebook directly.

Settlement follows months of negotiations after the FTC said Facebook had violated a 2011 deal to protect the privacy of users after breaking the promises made to users. In April, Facebook telegraphed that an agreement was being prepared informing investors that it was ready to pay up to $ 5 billion related to the FTC's investigation. That's significantly higher than the previous record, set when Google had disbursed $ 22.5 million in a 2012 FTC settlement user tracking.

At one point in the negotiations with Facebook, the FTC has considered a heavier fine, according to a Washington Post report. There was also a debate on the opportunity to make Zuckerberg personally responsible for the company's nonsense regarding privacy.

"If the FTC is seen as a traffic police that distributes speeding tickets to companies that break the law, Facebook and others will continue to push the boundaries," said Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri. , in a May letter to the FTC.

In response to the FTC settlement, Facebook said Wednesday that privacy has progressed well, but new changes are coming.

"We will do more to identify, badess and mitigate privacy risks," wrote Colin Stretch of Facebook in a blog post. "We will take new approaches to further document the decisions we make and monitor their impact, and we will introduce more technical controls to better automate privacy safeguards."

The regulation also imposes other confidentiality requirements, including increased monitoring of third-party applications and "clear and visible notification" of its use of face recognition. Facebook must also encrypt users' pbadwords and regularly check pbadwords stored in plain text. The order also prohibits the social network from using the obtained phone numbers to allow two-factor authentication for advertising and to "ask for e-mail pbadwords to other services when consumers are". 39, register for his services ".

The US Department of Justice, which has worked with the FTC, has stated its commitment to ensuring that Facebook and other social media companies do not mislead consumers about their personal information.

"The historical sanctions and historical compliance conditions of this settlement will benefit US consumers, and the ministry expects Facebook to meet its privacy obligations with utmost seriousness," said Jody Hunt. Deputy Attorney General of the DOJ Civil Division, in a statement.

The fine imposed by the FTC stems from Facebook's inability to control the data of 87 million users. This information has been entrusted to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm. The organization has been accused of using data collected by Facebook users to influence political campaigns, including the Brexit vote and the 2016 presidential campaign that led to Donald Trump's election. .

The SEC also announced Wednesday that it would impose a $ 100 million fine on Facebook as part of an agreement regarding a survey of the social network's management of user data. The investor protection agency alleged that Facebook's public disclosures did not sufficiently indicate that developers and other third parties who, by obtaining user data, had violated the rules of the social network or had not obtained the permission of the user.

Originally released on July 24 at 5:45 am Pacific Time.
Updated at 6:24 pm (PDT): Adds the statement of Mark Zuckerberg. And 7:09 pm Pacific time: Add more details on Jody Hunt's settlement and statement.