Facebook May Bear A Multibillion-Dollar Fine For Its Security Scandals

On February 14, as picked up by The Washington Post, Facebook has negotiated a fine worth multi-billions of dollars with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as a solution to compromise the investigation into the privacy practices of this social network.

If the fine is determined, it will become the highest amount Facebook have ever paid, even when both parties haven’t gone to the final agreement yet. In the worst case, the company will have to confront the FTC before the court.

According to a representative from Facebook, the company hasn’t made any comments on reports given by the Post.  As per the FTC, when being asked, it has not replied instantly to the Post’s request to give comments.

The agency has started to investigate the social network since 2018, after the fact that a digital consultancy named Cambridge Analytica had illegally accessed the data of about 8.7 crores Facebook users was uncovered. For those unknown, the consultancy was supposedly linked to the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, the US President in power.

The FTC is considering what Facebook has done violated the agreement made in 2011 with the government or not. Following this agreement, the company was committed to improving the practices for ensuring data privacy. As per Facebook, it claimed not to violate the bilateral agreement.

Facebook also agreed to ask for the permission of its users before offering their data to third parties. Besides, it must be conducted audits by a third party every 02 years in the coming 20 years. That aims to maintain the effectiveness of this program.

According to a recent report, Facebook can come to an agreement with the US government to pay a fine as mentioned above and amend some practices in business. The Post stated that a judge ought to agree with the settlement.

However, the FTC may set up new rules that require Facebook to check its platform more seriously with higher frequency. Its main target is to monitor whether the social network complies with this settlement or not. On the contrary, Facebook seemed to be "testing" the FTC based on what it has found, as well as proposed penalties.

The highest fine the FTC offered to a technology company concerning an agreement of users' privacy was $22.5 million. And Google was the one to bear that fine.