Facebook could be hit with record fine United States

US 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, according to three people familiar with the deliberations.

The fine under consideration at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which began probing Facebook last year, would be the first major punishment levied against Facebook in the US 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 US$22.5 million fine the agency imposed on Google in 2012. This set a record for the greatest penalty for violating an agreement with the FTC to improve its privacy practices.

The FTC’s exact findings in its Facebook investigation and the total amount of the fine, which the agency’s five commissioners have discussed at a private meeting in recent weeks, had not been finalised, two of the sources said.

Facebook had talked with FTC staff about the investigation, one of the people familiar with the probe said, but it is unclear whether the company would settle with the FTC by accepting a significant financial penalty.

The agreement requires Facebook to notify users, and give them permission, before data is shared with third parties in a way that differs from existing privacy settings.

It also requires Facebook to obtain users’ permission before sharing their data with third parties, and to tell the FTC if others misuse that information.

Privacy advocates say Facebook violated the terms of the agreement repeatedly, as evidenced by its entanglement with Cambridge Analytica. The data firm, which had ties to the Trump campaign, improperly harnessed personal information about the social networking site’s users in order to better target voters with political messages.