WSJ: The FTC approves $5B penalty against FB

US REGULATORS have approved a $5 billion penalty to be levied on Facebook to settle a probe into the social network’s privacy and data protection lapses, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The newspaper said the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the settlement in a 3-2 vote, with the two Democratic members of the consumer protection agency dissenting.

According to the report, the deal, which would be the largest penalty ever imposed by the FTC for privacy violations, still needs approval from the Justice Department before it is finalised.

Although details have not yet been released, the deal will likely include restrictions on how Facebook is able to use personal data.

Charlotte Slaiman of the consumer group Public Knowledge thinks it is unlikely the restrictions will be overly harsh.

“We don’t yet know key aspects of t he sett lement – whether Facebook must make any changes to its business model or practices as a result,” said Charlotte Slaiman, the group’s Competition Policy Counsel.

“By itself, this fine will not be sufficient to change Facebook’s behaviour.”

The outlook was more optimistic at the Center for Democracy and Technology, whose president Nuala O’Connor said the fine underscored the importance of “data stewardship” in the digital age.

“The FTC has put all companies on notice that they must safeguard personal information,” O’Connor said.

Facebook did not immediately respond to an AFP query on the agreement.

The FTC announced last year it reopened its investigation i nto a 2011 privacy sett lement with Facebook af ter revelations t hat personal data on tens of millions of users was hijacked by t he politica l consultancy Cambridge Analy tica, which was working on the Donald Trump campaign in 2016.

Facebook has a lso faced questions about whether it improperly shared user data with business partners in v iolat ion of t he earlier sett lement.

The settlement would be in line with Facebook’s estimate earlier this year when it said it expected to pay $3 billion to $5 billion for legal settlements on “user data practices”.

The fine is unlikely to hurt Facebook, which logged a profit of $2.4 billion on revenue that climbed 26 percent to $15.1 billion in the first three months of this year.

Facebook’s stock value increased 1.8 per cent after the fine was announced, closing at nearly $205, the highest it has been all year.