FTC Approves Roughly $5 Billion Facebook Settlement

Apparently, the Federal Trade Commission voted to approve a roughly $5 billion settlement with Facebook over a long-running probe into the company’s privacy missteps. The 3-2 vote by FTC commissioners broke along party lines, with the Republican majority lining up to support the pact while Democratic commissioners objected. The matter has been moved to the Justice Department’s civil division and it is unclear how long it will take to finalize. Justice Department reviews are part of the FTC’s procedure but typically don’t change the outcome of an FTC decision. A settlement is expected to include other government restrictions on how Facebook treats user privacy.  Facebook said April 24 that it was expecting to pay up to $5 billion to settle the probe. A resolution was bogged down by a split between Republicans and Democrats on the FTC, with the Democrats pushing for tougher oversight of the social-media giant. With Facebook having reported $15 billion in revenue last quarter, the $5 billion fine would amount to one month's worth of revenue.

The FTC investigation began more than a year ago after reports that personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users improperly wound up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that worked on President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. The FTC investigation centered on whether that lapse violated the 2012 consent decree with the agency in which Facebook agreed to better protect user privacy.