Facebook’s Reckless Use of Your Data Will Cost Platform $5 Bil

After a year-long investigation, Facebook settled with the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday, agreeing to pay the second-largest FTC fine in history, totaling $5 billion, according to an Associated Press report, over massive misuse of user data collected by Facebook. The investigation stemmed from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Cambridge Analytica, a British-based political data firm co-founded by former Donald Trump campaign chief and White House adviser Steve Bannon, used a specially created app to siphon massive amounts of user data from Facebook, which was then used as part of the Trump campaign’s voter targeting operation. The settlement also requires Facebook to restructure itself in order to do a better job protecting the data it collects from users. Though, as AVN.com has reported, not all of the data collected by Facebook comes from its own platform. A recent study found that about 10 percent of online porn sites contain code from Facebook that siphons data on users and their behavior on those sites, for use by the social media platform. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that as part of the settlement, his company would make “major structural changes to how we build products and run this company,” according to a USA Today report.  According to the settlement between the FTC and Facebook, the company broke the law by its failure to protect user data. Facebook also lied to its own users by telling them that its facial recognition software had been deactivated when, in fact, it was not. Facebook also employed user phone numbers to target advertisements, even though Facebook told users that those phone numbers were collected only for security purposes, according to a report by The Verge.  Whether the fine, which is 20 times the size of any previous FTC fine levied for privacy or data breaches, is enough to make a difference to Facebook remains unclear, however. Facebook reportedly made $22 billion in profit just last year, and had already budgeted $3 billion to pay any FTC fine.  Photo By Anthony Quintano / Wikimedia Commons