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Facebook Settlement With FTC Could Run Into the Billions (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission are discussing a settlement over privacy violations that could amount to a record, multibillion-dollar fine, according to three people with knowledge of the talks. The company and the F.T.C.'s consumer protection and enforcement staff have been in negotiations over a financial penalty for claims that Facebook violated a 2011 privacy consent decree with the agency, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is private. In 2011, Facebook promised a series of measures to protect user privacy after an investigation found it had harmed consumers with its handling of user data. The current talks have not yet reached the F.T.C.'s five commissioners for a vote and it is unclear how close the two sides are to wrapping up the nearly 11-month investigation. The commissioners met in mid-December and were updated by staff members that they had at that point found considerable evidence of violations of the 2011 consent decree. The FTC investigation into Facebook began after it was reported that the information of 87 million users had been harvested by a British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, without their permission. The agency could seek up to $41,000 for each violation found.
Data collected as designed is more accurate.
They did it on purpose, to make a profit.
Turns out that it's not the Mexicans paying for the wall after all, but it's Facebook.
Let's FINISH It All To He!!
Yippie I A! Yippie I O! Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah!
Good. They made a fortune off of poisoning the well of civic conversation.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
Why does anybody need a billion dollars?
Oh yeah, that's right. Privacy violations mean the government gets paid, not the people which were actually harmed by having their information leaked / stolen. Par for the course in the USA. I'd love to get even a percentage of those $41000 per violation.
And given the track record of the FCC lately I can't with certainty claim that I'd know who'd be paying who.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What did Zuck do to anger the government so much that they're now forcing his hand this hard?
Just join PRISM already and sell your soul Zuck, it's not worth it.
I fervently wish they'd close FB entirely. Facebook is the largest of those corporations that earn huge profits using your data, and you get NOTHING for it.This is inherently evil. Zuckerberg and his minions have plenty of filthy money by now. Close FB entirely, and set their engineers and computers to a task that actually benefits EVERYONE. Zuckerberg, just deport his ass.
Failing that, I hope they get many billions out of FB, make the bastards PAY. Sure, nothing will actually change at FB, but at least they can make them bleed money.
They'll just have to collect and sell even more user data to recoup the losses. And make sure to be even sneakier about it. No biggie.
Captcha: mirage
The FTC has been 'woke' on this issue since 2014 when they released a pretty good report on the goings on in the data broker market:
https://www.ftc.gov/system/fil...
They requested information from 9 databrokers, and explained things most of society still doesn't grasp like:
- It's not about 'your data'. Your raw data is turned into scores, and those scores are what is being sold. This 'derived' or 'inferred' data is what we should be talking about.
- Most of the money made from profiling is not made from advertising, but from selling 'risk management' products. The hundreds of scores the databrokers developed are sold to banks, insurers, employers. Cambridge Analytica's psychological profiles were once example of this algorithmically derived data.
- Databrokers sell a lot of data to each other too. This means you get scores.. which are sold and then aggregated into new scores.. which are then aggregated into new scores. Basically, there is no end to how long you can store data on people as long as you keep regurgitating and transforming it. Think of it like data whitewashing.
Because databrokers sell the derived data, and not the original data, there is little keeping them from scooping up data from leaks and feeding that to the algorithm too.
What Cambridge Analytica was, was the first glimmer of awareness with the larger public that the narrative of 'we create profiles to show you more relevant adds' is a only half the story, and it's diverting from what's really going on.
This is only the tip of the ice berg.
What's a few billion to Zuck?
I understand in your liberal education you didn't have to work hard to get your participation ribbon, but here in the real world you sound like and idiot.
FTC != FCC
Go put your fake news liberal bashing somewhere else. Preferably on the NYT comment section where the smart people won't have to be bothered with it.
It is humanity's most gifted and brightest people that inputted their bio data, answered revealing survey questions, and OK'd sending their contacts' phone numbers and addresses to Facebook and its partners. Certainly, each of these individuals should receive around $40,000 instead of the government.
FB instead of its insurance company paying billions, should be prevented from charging for advertising for data displayed in the USA for a period of 4 years.
The monetary penalty hardly discourages bad behavior. A find of this type is a 1 quarter and 1 annual report item.
It does nothing to correct this behavior.
My state's bank examiners would shut down a single branch bank if that bank knowingly allowed a third party to get the names, addresses, birth dates, interests, hobbies, political views, etc. of most of its customer base without getting prior explicit consent from the customers.
Being a large company with good insurance and deep pockets does not exempt said company from being forced out of business by government penalties.
It only takes the shutdown and fire-sale of assets of one big company to correct this problem.
Kickstarter anyone to lobby for future such government actions to correct the problem instead of making fines just a cost of doing business?
Why someone needs a billion dollars.
Thank you.
There isn't justice until corporal punishment and prison for life is involved for Zuckerberg and his nearest crew.
Good! Who cares?! As long as the penalty money doesn't go towards any kind of steel slat fence thing, it's all good.
Personal data capture, analysis and sharing is part of Facebook DNA.
Hopefully the fines will hit where it hurts and cause a re-evaluation of culture.
It really shows how little imagination that Wall St has that no one has gotten the idea to support Brave's business model, particularly on their patron side, to help push a shift toward ultra-cheap micropayments for content. The banking sector has A LOT to gain by promoting the aggressive burn down of the advertising economy in favor of people paying for content, yet no one seems to want to do it as a long-term play that fundamentally shifts the Internet funding ecosystem into their laps.
If I were a big wig, my plan would be to get the tech in place and then create an astroturfing campaign to get products like AdNauesum installed on so many users' PCs that the advertising networks cannot handle the feedback and lose customers. Then sit back and laugh as content providers have to sign up for the patron model that just so happens to send 5-10% cuts to us.
of the said $41000?
Because they have a history of not fining big corporations and let then go away with a rap and future corrective actions and some new laws...
On a very positive note, these are the same people that volunteered their DNA data, so it would be possible to identify genetic causes of such stupidity and hopefully edit it out with gene-editing techniques, like you would edit predisposition to certain ovarian or colon cancers.
Wicked. Folks are already installing adblockers in record numbers. Those people are a market looking for a new way to support the content they like. People arent pirates, they are just really frugal. Microtransactions should be popular.
1. Do something illegal or semi-legal and make 10 billion
2. Get caught and say your sorry, really, really, sorry
3. Get fined 1 billion
4. Roll around in the 9 billion left over
5. Avoid taxes since the 1 billion in fines is a deductible loss
Now that you've been caught, find new illegal or semi-legal thing to make 10 more billion and repeat
Calvin:Do you believe in the devil? Hobbes:I'm not sure man needs the help.
a 2011 privacy consent decree with the agency, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is private
Is the investigation of privacy consent decree violations covered by the privacy consent decree? WTF?!? Who writes these regulations?!?
Will this fine be enuff to build a wall? Asking for a friend.
That tiny penised Bezos should be next.
So, what's to stop Facebook, in a few years time, doing exactly the same or something else similar all over again, for a third time? They know the result is just a 'don't do this again! for real this time!' smackdown and what, some numbers on a computer somewhere get lower and some different numbers on a computer get higher? Wow. In the meantime, they have *acted*. They have *done things* that cannot be undone. And know they can keep on doing things, in violation of the law, and suffering these 'consquences'.
People do understand that by reaching a settlement they legally wash their hands of this and no privacy violations or acts of wrongdoing are found to have occurred, right?
The federal government is the worst at invading privacy ... and these people are going after FB for it?
Looking more & more like China all the time guys. Go USA! #1!
What are you, POOR??
As compared to the value of Amazon, it's merely a cost of doing business, rounding error. Perhaps someone could work with the state where Amazon is headquartered and take action to revoke their corporate charter. Extreme, most definitely. However, to fine a corporation of Amazon's size with an amount that has little to no effect on the leadership, or their share price makes the whole exercise a joke. Alternately, go after individuals at the top of the corporation (Sr. Leadership, and the Board of Directors) to prove personal malfeasance and send them off to a SuperMax. There's a really messed up part that recalls the episode of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History entitled "Painfotainment." I guess the real question beneath this dark muse is one of what makes up a sufficient deterrent? At what point do intelligent, but sociopathic individuals deserve the full force and power of the state in its most extreme form? I do not like seeing people suffer, and I don't like anyone make people suffer, but there has to be a way to stop corporations from committing financial and identity rape. Some dumb kid gets 20 years for smoking a joint or robbing $20 from a liquor store. These guys gut the economy, and deprive millions of individuals of a livelihood, and leave their victims open to black hats, including real robbery, not to mention blackmail, and possibly home invasion. At some point there needs to be an honest calculation of the damage done to their victims. I agree with the poster above who said "Make 10 billion fined 1 billion - profit!"
The FTC is just trying to grab a handful of the cash before the European countries grab it all.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
You forgot the support for the new antisemites.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Probably not rightfully back to the people who were violated. Most likely into the government so they can squander it with corrupt politicians and corporations as usual, right?
http://gamehacking.org/vb/threads/12747-nensondubois-codes http://twitter.com/nensondubois_