Facebook to pay $5 billion fine for privacy violations

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved a settlement involving about $5 billion with Facebook over its probe into the tech giant`s privacy violations, a media report said on Friday. FTC commissioners voted by 3-2 with Republicans in support and Democrats in opposition to the penalty, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The matter has been moved to the US Justice Department for a review, according to the Journal. It is still unclear what restrictions are on Facebook`s handling of user privacy in the settlement. FTC and Facebook declined to comment on the story. But Facebook said in April that it expected to pay up to $5 billion to settle the probe.

FTC initiated the investigation after a scandal involving former British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which was accused of illegally accessing data of more than 87 million Facebook users without their prior knowledge. FTC investigated whether Facebook`s data sharing with the British firm violated a 2011 consent agreement signed between Facebook and the regulator.

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The fine, if finalized, might be the largest one the FTC has ever levied on a tech company. But it`s affordable for Facebook which brought in almost $56 billion in revenue in 2018. Facebook`s share closed 1.81 per cent higher on Friday. 

"President Trump, of course, welcomed this idea," the Foreign Secretary had said. He said the two sides would first have technical discussions.