According to the Washington Post, an anonymous supply acquainted with the problem said Friday that the settlement was approved 3-2, and that the Justice Department is anticipated to approve the move.
In addition to the fine, which would be the highest ever levied by
the FTC against a
technology company and the highest
ever levied for a privacy violation, Facebook will reexamine how it handles user information.
The Washington Post noted that Facebook
“may have to document every decision it makes regarding information
before providing new merchandise, keep closer watch over third-party apps that tap users’ information, and require its high executives, as well as chief operating officer Mark
Zuckerberg, to attest that the
corporate adequately has protected privacy.”
However, the reports noted that the fine won’t have an effect on Facebook’s ability to share information with third parties.
During the primary quarter of 2019, Facebook’s revenue totaled over $15 billion. And TechSpot noted that following the
reports of the FTC’s decision,
Facebook’s market valuation rose by $10.4 billion.
The Guardian quoted Matt Stoller, a fellow at
the Open Markets Institute who has a specialty of monopoly
power: “This isn’t a fine; it’s a favor to Facebook, a ticket which will clear
them to conduct more illegal and invasive surveillance. Congress should begin defunding the FTC and move the
money to state enforcers like Karl Racine who believe in enforcing the law.”
Last year, the British data-mining company used data inappropriately collected from the accounts of over 50 million Facebook users. The
data, collected in 2014, was gained by taking advantage of a loophole in the system which permitted a temperament quiz
application to achieve access
not only to the information of the 270,000
users who took the
quiz, however all of
their Facebook friends’ accounts furthermore.
University of Cambridge academic Aleksandr Kogan, the
author of the quiz, sold the information to Cambridge
Analytica, which then
used the information to engage in “micro-targeting”
for clients, mining a wealth of private data to determine which users are most receptive to particular messages.