FTC fines Facebook $5 billion
The Federal Trade Commission has fined Facebook $5 billion in a settlement that both the agency and the company promise will result in real change in how the social networking giant operates and handles user information.
The FTC on Wednesday confirmed numerous reports that it had approved an “unprecedented” settlement that includes the largest privacy fine ever after a yearlong investigation into whether the company had violated terms of a previous privacy settlement.
In a news conference Wednesday, the FTC accused the company of repeated violations of its 2011 settlement. But FTC Chairman Joe Simons said “litigation would’ve taken years ... this provides immediate and important protection for consumers.”
Among key parts of the new, 20-year deal: the Silicon Valley company must create a board-level privacy committee, appoint privacy compliance officers who cannot be removed by Facebook’s chief executive, and provide to the FTC quarterly and yearly certifications of compliance with the terms of the settlement.
“We are extremely proud of the landmark penalty and conduct relief announced today,” the FTC said in a statement. “The size of the $5 billion penalty, as well as the percentage of profits it represents, will provide significant deterrence not just to Facebook, but to every other company that collects or uses consumer data.”
In addition, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post Wednesday about the settlement, Facebook will have to keep privacy in mind when designing or modifying its offerings.
“When we ship a new feature that uses data, or modify an existing feature to use data in new ways, we’ll have to document any risks and the steps we’re taking to mitigate them,” Zuckerberg said, adding that it will take more time and people to comply with that requirement. The two Democrats on the commission voted against the deal, which was approved 3-2 along party lines.
“I recognize the settlement’s historic nature,” Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said in her dissenting statement. “But I do not share my colleagues’ confidence that the order or the monetary penalty will effectively deter Facebook from engaging in future law violations, and thus I fear it leaves the American public vulnerable.” Slaughter, who noted that $5 billion is the equivalent of what Facebook earns in a month, said she had wanted to recommend litigation against the company and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Simons and the majority of the commission pointed out that the settlement would subject Zuckerberg and other company executives to individual civil and criminal penalties in the future. Zuckerberg himself will also have to submit quarterly certifications of compliance. But Slaughter said “I strenuously object to the choice to release him and all other executives from any potential liability for their roles to date.” of Puerto Rico?
Close aides and friends of Rossello offered starkly different versions on radio and television shows Wednesday morning.
Antonio Sagardia, former secretary of justice under Gov. Luis Fortuno, told reporters Rossello had already resigned and was no longer in Puerto Rico.
Sagardia assured radio station WIAC 740 AM he had been “talking with the governor in the last few days because I was convinced he needed advisers.”
This version was quickly contradicted about 30 minutes later by Ricardo Llerandi, Rossello’s chief of staff until he resigned less than 24 hours before.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to reject that rumor,” Llerandi told WAPA Noticentro reporters in a televised interview. “Yesterday when I left, he was still in Fortaleza.”
Llerandi, one of the members of the profanity-laden Telegram group message that provoked massive outrage on the island, said the governor was weighing “all options” but could not say if he would resign. Shannon Dingle. In posts on Facebook and Twitter, Shannon Dingle said the injury caused her husband’s throat to swell, depriving his brain of oxygen.
Though they were unable to save her husband, Shannon Dingle thanked those who tried to help in a post on her blog.
“The strangers on the beach and emergency responders from Oak Island and later medical professionals who worked on Lee are some of the finest and best people in the world,” she wrote. “Additional response from Oak Island leaders, including the mayor, has been compassionate and kind. Please know that, if anything, everything involving Oak Island has made me certain it is the finest beach community there is. No one can give us back the one thing we want, but they did and have continued to do literally everything else possible.”
Dingle is a popular blogger, author and social media personality who has written from a Christian perspective about her husband, their children, and her experience as the survivor of childhood sexual assault by her father, brother and others.
Dingle writes that she struggles with as yet unexplained health issues.