Facebook Inc might be facing the biggest fine ever imposed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over alleged privacy violations involving the personal information of its 2.2 billion users.
The commission is considering hitting Facebook with a penalty that would top its previous record fine of US$22.5 million, which it dealt to Google in 2012 for bypassing the privacy controls in Apple Inc’s Safari browser, according to the Washington Post.
The report published on Friday cited three unidentified people familiar with the discussions.
In an automated response, the commission said it was unable to comment, citing its closure due to the US government shutdown.
Facebook declined to comment.
The potential fine stems from a commission investigation opened after revelations that data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica had vacuumed up details about as many as 87 million Facebook users without their permission.
The commission has been exploring whether that massive breakdown contravened a settlement that Facebook reached in 2011 after government regulators had concluded the Menlo Park, California, company had repeatedly broken its privacy promises.
The commission’s decree, which runs through 2031, requires Facebook to get its users’ consent to share their personal information in ways that are not allowed by their privacy settings.
Since the Cambridge Analytica situation emerged 10 months ago, Facebook has vowed to do a better job of corralling its users’ data. Nevertheless, its controls have remained leaky. Just last month, the company acknowledged that a software flaw had exposed the photographs of about 7 million users to a wider audience than they had intended.
The FTC’s five commissioners have discussed fining Facebook, but have not settled on the amount yet, the Washington Post reported.
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