FTC Announces $5B Facebook Fine, Revamped Privacy Controls

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has officially announced the terms of its $5 billion settlement with Facebook. The social giant has also promised improved privacy oversight within the company.

It is the largest fine imposed on any company for violating consumers’ privacy and almost 20 times greater than the largest privacy or data security penalty ever imposed worldwide.

Facebook assessed $5 billion penalty, subjected to sweeping new restrictions on user privacy decisions to settle FTC charges the company violated a 2012 FTC order by deceiving users about their ability to control privacy of their personal info. Read more: https://t.co/NYx2JnKmJV pic.twitter.com/7KVd3Vg02J

— FTC (@FTC) July 24, 2019

“The settlement order announced today also imposes unprecedented new restrictions on Facebook’s business operations and creates multiple channels of compliance," the FTC said in a statement. "The order requires Facebook to restructure its approach to privacy from the corporate board-level down, and establishes strong new mechanisms to ensure that Facebook executives are accountable for the decisions they make about privacy and that those decisions are subject to meaningful oversight.”

Responding in a blog post, Facebook said: "The agreement will require a fundamental shift in the way we approach our work and it will place additional responsibility on people building our products at every level of the company. It will mark a sharper turn toward privacy, on a different scale than anything we’ve done in the past.  The accountability required by this agreement surpasses current US law and we hope will be a model for the industry."