Facebook Could Face Record Fine, Say Former FTC Officials
The Washington Post reports that Facebook’s disclosure that its search tools were used to collect data on most of its 2.2 billion users could potentially trigger record fines and create new legal vulnerability for not having prevented risks to user data, three former federal officials said.
“The three former officials, all of whom were at the Federal Trade Commission during the privacy investigation that led to a 2011 consent decree with Facebook, said the company’s latest mishap may violate the decree’s provisions requiring the implementation of a privacy program,” according to reporters Craig Timberg and Tony Romm.
They quote David Vladeck, who was head of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection when the decree was drafted and signed by Facebook, as saying that Facebook could face fines of $1 billion or more for this and the mishap in which Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to information on as many as 87 million Facebook users.
