Facebook fined a record FIVE BILLION DOLLARS!

Facebook fined a record FIVE BILLION DOLLARS!

 The Federal Trade Commission voted to fine Facebook $5 billion for mishandling users’ personal information.  

This aggressive fine shows that regulators are not going to go easy on technology companies who do not safeguard the information of their users.  


In addition to the $5 billion fine, the settlement said that Facebook had to agree to better management and safeguards on how it handles user data. 


However, this settlement does NOT restrict Facebook's ability to keep collecting and sharing user information with third parties.  

The $5 billion fine is not a done deal yet because it still has to get final approval from the Justice Department, but their record in the past has been to support any fines sanctioned by the Federal Trade Commission.

It may be of interest to some Facebook users that since the fine was announced, Facebook's stock price went up to $205 per share which is the highest it's been since 2018.  

If the $5 billion fine is approved, this will be the biggest fine in history that the Federal Trade Commission has brought against a technology company.  

Google had the highest fine previously when they were fined $22 million in 2012 by the Federal Trade Commission.  In addition, Google was also fined $5.1 billion by the European Union for abusing its market share in the mobile phone market.  


If I am not mistaken, any other country will also be allowed to fine Facebook, just as the European Union did with Google in 2018 if they can prove that their users were affected by the breach.

We'll see if this changes the way user information is collected, stored and used in the future.  But don't hold your breath. 

Things seem to always go back to the status quo, partly because the pockets of technology companies are deep when it comes to fines.  

The rise in Facebook's stock price alone speaks volumes.  Facebook can afford the $5 billion fine.  

Whether they want to pay it or not is another matter.

What's your opinion on this newest fine?  Comments welcomed.

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Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/technology/facebook-ftc-fine.html