Facebook reportedly fined $5 billion by FTC due to privacy violations

The Federal Trade Commission in the United States has reportedly leveled a massive fine against Facebook over privacy violations.

According to a report on Friday from The Wall Street Journal, Facebook has been hit with a fine upwards of $5 billion by the FTC. This is a settlement, which will end the FTC’s probe into Facebook regarding privacy violations and the Cambridge Analytica scandal that populated most of the headlines for Facebook throughout 2018.

For those keeping track, this fine against Facebook demolishes the previous record holder. That was Google, which, back in 2012, was hit with a fine by the FTC of $22.5 million.

The Federal Trade Commission voted this week to approve a roughly $5 billion settlement with Facebook Inc. over a long-running probe into the tech giant’s privacy missteps, according to people familiar with the matter.

The 3-2 vote by FTC commissioners broke along party lines, with the Republican majority lining up to support the pact while Democratic commissioners objected, the people said. The matter has been moved to the Justice Department’s civil division and it is unclear how long it will take to finalize…

At the time of publication, the final decision will be made by the Justice Department in the United States. However, it sounds like the decision won’t be changing, and Facebook will be forced to pay the full amount.

Finally, the settlement will also include new privacy restrictions that Facebook will have to implement in the near future. Which is not too surprising, considering how many times Facebook found itself caught up in some scandal or another revolving around privacy and security concerns recently.

Did you stop using Facebook over privacy concerns?