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US Regulators Have Met To Discuss Imposing a Record-Setting Fine Against Facebook For Some of Its Privacy Violations: Report (washingtonpost.com)

U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for violating a legally binding agreement with the government to protect the privacy of its users' personal data, The Washington Post reported Friday [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], citing three people familiar with the deliberations. From the report: The fine under consideration at the Federal Trade Commission, a privacy and security watchdog that began probing Facebook last year, would mark the first major punishment levied against Facebook in the United States since reports emerged in March that Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, accessed personal information on about 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge. The penalty is expected to be much larger than the $22.5 million fine the agency imposed on Google in 2012. That fine set a record for the greatest penalty for violating an agreement with the FTC to improve its privacy practices.

7 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Probably wont be enough by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 2

    Unless its in the multiple of billions, this will be just a slap.
    They are one of the biggest companies in the world. I am sure $100,000,000 fine would suck somewhat, but its not enough.

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    http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
    1. Re:Probably wont be enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They'll really feel this one. It's almost 0.17% of their quarterly revenue!

      No, not 17%, seventeen hundredths of a percent.

      https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2018/Facebook-Reports-Third-Quarter-2018-Results/default.aspx

  2. b..bu..bu..but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    facebook's greed and ignorance are significant contributors to brexit and, even more spectacular (and not in a good way), the entire shitshow that is the trump presidency.

    had they not sold out to russian trolls (and perhaps chinese and/or saudi..) and spooks and republican campaign and its vendors (cambridge analytics, et al) and major donors (koch, nra, etc).. the uk would not be trying to leave the e.u. and trump would in jail instead of the white house.

    i can't see trump-friendly government officials going after facebook.. maybe what they really meant is they're gonna get a slap on the wrist, because we 'just have' to do 'something' since the e.u. started to hammer fb.

  3. It's time to fine Facebook USERS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Facebook would not be the behemoth it is without the legions of stupid people who sign up, give it access to their phones, their contacts, their GPS logs, their messages, their web browsing history... and along the way drag the NON-Facebook users into "shadow profiles" from the scraped contact lists and texting data.

    There was literally no reason to ever use Facebook or sign up for it. It was made by a creep to stalk girls at his university.

    It succeeds because people MAKE it succeed. It's time to start fining its users, too, for enabling behaviors.

  4. Fines don't stop the rich by Dust038 · · Score: 2

    Fines don't stop the rich. Jail Time folks. Jail Time for the entire Executive board. Make people take Responsibility. Cut all outside access until they get out and I'm not talking Brock Turner sentencing. I'm talking possession of drugs where you get more years than child rapists. Possession of Data.

  5. Facebook stock will probably go up... by PongoX11 · · Score: 2

    When investors see how great the ROI is on privacy violations. Billions and billions in illicit earnins and millions in fines--seems like a great racket.

  6. Will They Even Notice It? by rlp · · Score: 2

    Facebook revenue is $142 million per day (with a 37.5% profit margin). The "large" fine will be a small footnote in their annual report.

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    [Insert pithy quote here]