Facebook facing $3 billion fine from FTC over privacy violations
Facebook said on Wednesday that it expected to be fined up to $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations. The penalty would be a record by the agency against a technology company and a sign that the United States was willing to punish big tech companies.
The company said it set aside $3 billion during the first quarter to handle the expected expense, though it insisted the “matter remains unresolved” and said it was not clear when the investigation would come to an end.
This is expected to cut deeply into Facebook’s first quarter profits, which was was $2.4 billion, a decrease of 51 percent from the same period a year ago.
The FTC said last year it was investigating reports that the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to the data of tens of millions of Facebook users, seven years after Facebook agreed to improve its privacy practices to settle an earlier dispute with the FTC.
Investors were not fazed by the news, sending Facebook’s stock up more than 4 percent during after-hours trading on the Nasdaq.
photo: TaxRebate.org.ukmon
