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US REGULATORS HAVE approved a $5 billion (€4.4 billion) penalty to be levied on Facebook to settle a probe into the social network’s privacy and data protection lapses, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
The newspaper said the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the settlement in a 3-2 vote, with the two Democratic members of the consumer protection agency dissenting.
According to the report, the deal, which would be the largest penalty ever imposed by the FTC for privacy violations, still needs approval from the US Justice Department before it is finalised.
Although details have not yet been released, the deal will likely include restrictions on how Facebook is able to use personal data.
Charlotte Slaiman of the consumer group Public Knowledge thinks it is unlikely the restrictions will be overly harsh.
“We don’t yet know key aspects of the settlement: whether Facebook must make any changes to its business model or practices as a result,” said Charlotte Slaiman, the group’s Competition Policy Counsel.
“By itself, this fine will not be sufficient to change Facebook’s behavior.”
The outlook was more optimistic at the Center for Democracy and Technology, whose president Nuala O’Connor said the fine underscored the importance of “data stewardship” in the digital age.
“The FTC has put all companies on notice that they must safeguard personal information,” O’Connor said.
Facebook did not immediately respond to an AFP query on the agreement.
Unlikely to hurt
The FTC announced last year it reopened its investigation into a 2011 privacy settlement with Facebook after revelations that personal data on tens of millions of users was hijacked by the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which was working on the Donald Trump campaign in 2016.
Facebook has also faced questions about whether it improperly shared user data with business partners in violation of the earlier settlement.
The leading social network with more than two billion users worldwide has also been facing inquiries on privacy from authorities in US states and regulators around the world.
In Ireland, the Data Protection Commissioner earlier this year launched a statutory inquiry into Facebook’s password storage after the social media giant revealed that it stored millions of accounts’ passwords in plain text on its internal servers.
It is examining whether Facebook broke EU data rules by storing users’ passwords in this manner.
The settlement in the US would be in line with Facebook’s estimate earlier this year when it said it expected to pay $3 billion to $5 billion for legal settlements on “user data practices”.
The fine is unlikely to hurt Facebook, which logged a profit of $2.4 billion on revenue that climbed 26% to $15.1 billion in the first three months of this year.
Facebook’s stock value increased 1.8% after the fine was announced, closing at nearly $205, the highest it has been all year.
Break up Facebook
Some Facebook critics have argued the company should face tougher sanctions including monitoring of its data practices, or that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg should be personally liable for penalties.
Faced with criticism, Facebook’s head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, called on governments to do more to regulate social networks, instead of leaving the work to companies.
“It’s not for private companies, however big or small, to come up with those rules. It is for democratic politicians in the democratic world to do so,” Clegg said in a 24 June interview with the BBC.
But there are increasing calls to dismantle the massive social network.
In May, one of Facebook’s co-founders called for the social media behemoth to be broken up, warning that Zuckerberg had become far too powerful.
“It’s time to break up Facebook,” said Chris Hughes in an editorial for The New York Times, saying it had become necessary to separate the social network from Facebook’s Instagram and WhatsApp services.
Zuckerberg’s “focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and civility for clicks,” said Hughes.
With reporting from Seán Murray
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Colum Eastwood used the Fianna Fáil tactic of attacking Sinn Féin, instead of putting his own policies forward. Its not working for Mícheál Martin and it didn’t work for Colum.
@Tommy Berry: Excellent point. The main parties have to learn that the only way they will get re-elected in the future is by delivering on their promises and actually work for the benefit of Ireland and it’s people.
The younger generation don’t care about wars that ended decades ago. They want to have a country where they can work, own a house, start a family and live well off their hard work.
At the moment, they can’t buy a home, have half their income sent to Revenue to be wasted by wasters and their only way out is to move to a real country to have a quality of life.
@David Corrigan: are you referring to the North or South there DC as NI has a housing crisis that is worse than ours, cost of living has sky rocketed, the NHS is on it’s knees, the worst education system in the UK apparently, a poor welfare system, the highest number of employees in public sector in the UK and would have a refugee crisis if not for a £15bn annual subvention from London. This is all under a SF/DUP coalition. Let’s hope MON can turn this around quickly as First Minister or it could be the shortest term since the establishment of the Assembly. No more hiding behind a DUP First Minister. The voters expect results, quickly. The hurling on the ditch is over.
@GrumpyAulFella: I’m talking about the south and the main parties lack of performance. Why would you expect things to turn around in one term when things could not have been improved in over 100 years of FF/FG in charge?
Nobody is certain SF will improve things in time or at all even but we have to get away from FG/FF for a while. They simply have no interest in working to make our country a great country for all the citizens.
@Tommy Berry: ff and fg did the sdlp no favors canvasing for them .toxic party’s the both of them
@David Corrigan: but FF/FG have only been in power for 2 years as partners have they not. You expect miracles in 2 years over a global pandemic yet you want the Shinners to get 8-10 years to make a difference in NI??? Sure how long have SF been in partnership with their unionist colleagues in the assembly at this point? Who is the Minister responsible for Housing? Who is the Finance minister? The hard questions will be coming thick and fast now.
@GrumpyAulFella: are you really suggesting that FF and FG have had influence in this country for the last two years only? If that’s the last line you have for defending their policies it just goes to show how naive you are.
@GrumpyAulFella: Are you serious?
@GrumpyAulFella: You obviously don’t understand the system of government in the six counties. Bless.
@GrumpyAulFella:
@GrumpyAulFella: that reply beats meholes ‘we didn’t bail out the banks’..tough day for you pal your better than that
Kiss of death having Fianna Fáil , Fianna Gael & Labour canvassing for the SDLP partitioning parties one & all
Instead of sneering and taking cheap pot shots as sinn Fein at every turn maybe the SDLP need to take a step away from fianna fail/Gael and labour parties and form a nationalist alliance with sinn fein in stormont,they have run a terrible strategy in these elections
@doyle: hmm where have we seen those tactics before?
Journal, I think you should take down that photo of Michelle O’Neill before you get sued.
@Martello Mulligan: lol right out of meeholes joke book.
@Martello Mulligan: your so funny ..sour grapes and lots of them,.. boo hoo save it for ur mates in the oubt
@Michael Nolan: pub …god dam it
@Martello Mulligan: What makes you think that? I’m sure you will discover if you look into it politicians from other political parties have brought cases against the media. Like Michael Martin you seen to have a memory loss.
@James Reardon: I see you’re an aficionado of meeholism. How clever. I suppose SmellyLouism would have you in stitches too.
@Michael Nolan: Damn. You’re welcome.
@Donal Desmond: I must have missed the weird photo of MM on this article. Oops.
@Martello Mulligan: No photo of Martin in the article, but your comment concerning the journal being sued by Michelle O’Neill while ignoring other politicians from other political parties who sued the media just reminded me of Martin when he stated there was no bank bailout. That’s where memory loss enters.
@Martello Mulligan: easy money suing rte nearly all cases defamatory and settled..it’s what happens when you have a one sided media…mehole fartin
@Donal Desmond: Got it. Your comment about MM and the bank bailout reminds me of The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee. That’s not to forget The Rose of Mooncoin, Slievenamon, Molly Malone, Lovely Leitrim, The Rose of Tralee, and The Sash Me Father Wore.
@Brian Burns: Sorry to hear about your flatulence issues. Have you tried cutting back on the coffee?
This was apparent from the polls.
There is one reason and one reason only that the SDLP performs so poorly in northern elections. Not unsurprisingly, nationalists want their political representatives to actually work towards bringing about Irish reunification. The SDLP has never done that, never promised to do it and doesn’t care if it ever happens now. The revered late John Hume, in his positioning of the SDLP as a ‘post-nationalist’ party is the cause of the party’s decline. Of course, let’s not forget Fitt the Brit, selling out the Irish people and taking the Queen’s Shilling. The SDLP, whatever it is, is not a nationalist party any more, if ever it was. If one wants a united Ireland, one cannot and must not vote for the SDLP. The SDLP has let down the nationalist and republican community too often by acting not in nationalist interests but to appease an intransigent unionism. Sinn Féin does not apologise for our being Irish or for our desire for freedom and reunification and works persistently but politely to waken unionism up to its numerical and electoral decline and remind them they are not the only people worth consideration and in a democracy they have to abide by the reasonable desire of the majority, with guarantees to uphold their rights as equal with everyone else in Ireland, rights and guarantees Sinn Féin would make sure were upheld, unlike what was done to Irish people in the north for 50 years after partition. Sinn Féin are no longer the bogeymen they’re made out to be. There is no more IRA because of Sinn Féin. The struggle for freedom was made constitutional by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, inter alia, not by David Trimble or John Hume. Sinn Féin has stuck religiously to the commitments it made on signing the GFA. Not many other parties can say the same. Neither Michelle O’Neill nor Mary Lou McDonald were or are in the IRA or the Army Council. The continuing attempts to demonise them in that respect is tiresome and, ultimately, futile. In the north, Irish people trust Sinn Féin. In the south, Irish people support Sinn Féin more than any other party. So many Irish people cannot all be wrong. Time to change the narrative, please..
Eastwood mentioned Pearse and a few more 1916 leaders when he questioned “why are we still calling stadiums after terrorists” that really got peoples goats up big time, those that had intended to vote for SDLP changed their minds
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