Facebook slapped with record $5bn fine over privacy breaches

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has slapped tech giant Facebook with a record $5bn fine over privacy breaches. A US government agency, the FTC’s main goal is to protect consumers, and remove and prevent anti-competitive business behaviour. The FTC says Facebook must pay the fine, submit to new restrictions and a revised corporate structure, and set up strong new mechanisms from board-level down that will hold the firm and its execs accountable for their decisions about users’ privacy. The $5bn penalty is the largest imposed on any company globally for violating consumers’ privacy – almost 20x more than the next biggest fine to date. “Despite repeated promises to its billions of users worldwide that they’d control how users’ personal information is shared, Facebook undermined consumers’ choices,” says FTC chair Joe Simons. The mammoth fine and sweeping conduct relief aim not only to punish future violations but, more importantly, to change Facebook’s entire privacy culture, so that violations are less likely to happen again. Get the full story at https://www.itweb.co.za/content/LPp6V7r4VQ4qDKQz