The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved a proposed $5 billion fine that will be imposed on Facebook following an investigation into its alleged privacy and data protection lapses. The penalty is meant to settle the probe into the company's practices and to hopefully force it to drastically change its business model and operational practices.
The US regulator approved the settlement amount in a 3-2 vote, with two Democratic members of the agency voting against it. The fine still needs to be approved by the US Justice Department before it is finalized. If approved, the fine will be the largest penalty ever given by the FTC involving the violation of its privacy regulations.
The settlement amount is in line with Facebook's expectations. The social media giant announced earlier in the year that is expected to pay between $3 billion to $5 billion as a settlement of legal action against its user data practices.
Apart from the hefty fine, the settlement will likely also include a set of necessary changes and restrictions to ensure that Facebook will better protect its user's personal data moving forward. The details of the settlement deal have not yet been detailed by the FTC.
According to experts, the restrictions that will be imposed on the social media giant will likely not be that severe, but Facebook will have to apply those changes to its operations to prevent any further fines in the future.
The Center for Democracy and Technology pointed out that the fine should serve as a wakeup call for Facebook and other social media platforms to take better care of their user's data, especially in the digital age.
The FTC's stance on the matter is apparently very strict and social media platforms should be more wary of their practices.
The investigation on Facebook's practices was reopened last year, preceded by a probe in 2011 involving the hijacking of Facebook user's personal data by the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. The incident involved the personal data of tens of millions of users, which were allegedly used to aid Donald Trump's campaign in 2016.
The investigation also looked at Facebook's alleged sharing of user data with its business partners, which was a violation of its previous settlement with the FTC.
In response to the investigation against it, Facebook has announced several tweaks to its platform. This includes a tweak to its "Why am I seeing this ad" tool that will now provide more information to users.
The platform will also soon display all of the advertisers and businesses that have collected any particular user's information, which will be placed under the ad preferences menu.
