Facebook’s privacy breach issues may cost the company a multibillion-dollar fine from the Federal Trade Commission. People familiar with the case said that the tech giant is now in negotiation with the U.S. agency over this fine.
If imposed, the penalty will be the largest the FTC has ever given to any technology company. An insider revealed that the two parties have not agreed on any specific amount yet and that Facebook has openly expressed its concerns regarding FTC’s demands.
To date, Google has received the largest fine ever imposed by the FTC. The Silicon Valley company was fined a whopping $22.5 million in 2012 after authorities confirmed that it tracked Apple’s Safari web browser despite saying it would not do so.
Facebook’s Privacy Breach Issues
The FTC first launched its probe against Facebook’s privacy breach issues in March last year following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Since then, Facebook’s privacy violations started filing up.
AÂ report from The Washington Post last month said that the FTC could impose a larger than $22 million fine on Facebook. However, civil rights and privacy advocates believe that a multimillion-dollar penalty is not enough to persuade the social media giant to correct its mistakes.
“Given that Facebook’s violations are so numerous in scale, severe in nature, impactful for such a large portion of the American public and central to the company’s business model, and given the company’s massive size and influence over American consumers, penalties and remedies that go far beyond the Commission’s recent actions are called for,” Open Market Institute, Color of Change, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said in a joint letter sent to the FTC last month.
Mark Zuckerberg and his company are said to be at a disadvantage. Apparently, if no agreement will be reached, the FTC could take the issue to court, escalating the situation into a damaging legal fight for Facebook.
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