Facebook slapped with $5 bn fine over privacy breaches

Social media giant Facebook has been slapped with $5 billion fine by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is the culmination of a years-long investigation into the Cambridge Analytica scandal and other privacy breaches. The FTC alleged that Facebook violated the law by failing to protect data from third parties, serving ads through the use of phone numbers provided for security, and lying to users that its facial recognition software

was turned off by default. In order to settle those charges, Facebook will pay $5 billion — the second-largest fine ever levied by the FTC — and agrees to a series of new restrictions on its business, according to reports. Besides the multibillion-dollar fine, the networking major will be required to conduct a privacy review of every new product or service that it develops, and these reviews must be submitted to the CEO and a third-party assessor every quarter.

Since it directly relates to Cambridge Analytica, Facebook will now be required to obtain purpose and use certifications from apps and third-party developers that want to use Facebook user data. Facebook’s facial recognition software also comes under fire from the settlement. Under the new rules, the company will be required to obtain affirmative consent to create new facial recognition models, although it will not be required to destroy old models that may have been created without such consent. “The agreement will require a fundamental shift in the way we approach our work and it will place additional responsibility on people building our products at every level of the company,” Facebook said in a blog post. Together with the agreement, Facebook will also pay $100 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to disclose the breach to investors. ■