Facebook May Have Violated FTC Privacy Deal

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rgMekanic

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Expanding on the story we covered yesterday where Cambridge Analytica harvested millions of Facebook profiles, an article from The Washington Post states that Facebook may have violated an FTC decree. The article states that two former federal officials who crafted the consent decree governing how facebook handles user privacy say that that decree may have been violated when it shared the information of tens of millions of its users. The former director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection states that Facebook could face a fine of $40,000 per violation. Meaning that if the data of 50 million people were shared is true, Facebook's possible fines runs into the trillions of dollars.

Two trillion dollars. If this all plays out, you may want to start selling off Facebook stock. I hope Zuckerberg saved some of that movie money, it sounds like this is going to be bad.

“Depending on how all the facts shake out, Facebook's actions could violate any or all of these provisions, to the tune of many millions of dollars in penalties. They could also constitute violations of both US and EU laws,” wrote Rich, who is vice president for advocacy at Consumer Reports. “Facebook can look forward to multiple investigations and potentially a whole lot of liability here.”
 
Just musing, the more I wonder if this is the scapegoat for Equifax...
 
I did an investigation audit for a client (they were our customer but we helped "right the ship" when they were sued).
a. govt: 300mil fine for taking $100mil from an obamacare funded program to hire more staffing in nursing homes
b. after a few months: < $1mil fine
c. profit $149mil lol. they got to underfund, understaff , mass-fire the staff before the kickback and reap a huge profit.


my guess is they will get it reduced to a few thousand bucks
 
They'll probably find the right person to pay off to make the charges disappear or be significantly decreased
 
oROEchimaru said:
I did an investigation audit for a client (they were our customer but we helped "right the ship" when they were sued).
a. govt: 300mil fine for taking $100mil from an obamacare funded program to hire more staffing in nursing homes
b. after a few months: < $1mil fine
c. profit $149mil lol. they got to underfund, understaff , mass-fire the staff before the kickback and reap a huge profit.


my guess is they will get it reduced to a few thousand bucks
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That's all too often the problem with large fines for wrongdoing.

They negotiate them down so they can settle without going through a lengthy court challenge because those are a pain in the ass for everyone involved, and the regulators are usually underfunded to the point where they can't pursue them because they don't have enough people.


So what happens? They settle for peanuts, much less than the illicit activities actually gained them in profit, and these fines wind up being just a cost of doing business.

There ought to be laws regarding these fines. Something to the effect of "No fine may be settled for less than twice the value or revenue gained from the behavior being fined", giving regulators discretion in adding punitive damages beyond that value.

This ought to be more effective, but still, the problem of us as a nation systemically and intentionally crippling our regulators by underfunding them, so the wealthy donors who give money to campaigns can get away with their financial and other crimes is the real culprit and needs to be solved.

The childish notion that "all regulation is bad" is to blame here.
 
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This one will be interesting. Facebook is somewhat of a "sacred cow", but not totally (not like Apple).
 
cjcox said:
This one will be interesting. Facebook is somewhat of a "sacred cow", but not totally (not like Apple).
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Europe is more keen on suing large US companies (Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook etc)... my guess is we will see the lawsuits start there before here. We most likely will have people called forward in front of congress from both companies but little will be done. I already heard 4 hours of republican AM radio today arguing that when "obama used social media he was a hero... when trump does it its all lies and he is not a villain".. without really spending any time to research the issue.

Often the customer (regardless what party you are in) may not realize the shady practices behind the scenes. In the defense of their customers... they asked for a service and got it but most likely were not aware of the shady practices being used to provide the data... they were sold on powerpoint slides and BS.
 
Still waiting for those massive fines for Home Depot, TJMax, Yahoo, Equifax, VA, Discover Card, Target among others for violating consumer privacy and data security. Don't plan on holding breath while waiting.
 
Dead Parrot said:
Still waiting for those massive fines for Home Depot, TJMax, Yahoo, Equifax, VA, Discover Card, Target among others for violating consumer privacy and data security. Don't plan on holding breath while waiting.
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If the government would collect on all of those fines, we could actually start paying down some of the debt.

I really hate how the government complains about how bad the debt is, and then on the same show there is a commercial about how some law firm settled their client's tax debt for pennies on the dollar.
 
GOOOOOOOD

On the other hand, It's seems to me that a lot of these politicians and successful business companies/people are mostly just professional extortionists. Find whatever leverage and exploit it for personal gain. If equifax taught us anything, any reparations will not be given to the people affected, but more likely favors to people of power.
 
Like everyone else has said, they won't have to pay anything. That is one thing that pisses me off about the entire legal system. It is far too easy for too many people to get away with things. Big company owes lots in fines, they won't have to pay. Person with a CDL gets a ticket for speeding or drunk driving, and they get it reduced to jay walking or chewing gum in public. Rich person crashes a car into a house doing 130mph while high on a cocktail of drugs, and they get 10 hours of community service. Average person does anything and they get ran through the ringer to make a point.
 
Dead Parrot said:
Still waiting for those massive fines for Home Depot, TJMax, Yahoo, Equifax, VA, Discover Card, Target among others for violating consumer privacy and data security. Don't plan on holding breath while waiting.
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You guys are thinking small, real small. FB should not be lumped in with others. FB has enabled shit that was just conspiracy theory on the American public, just crazy.


So should you delete your Facebook account? Let’s hear from Theresa Hong again. “Without Facebook”, the Trump campaigner said last year, “we wouldn’t have won.”

You have your answer.
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And the people will never see a dime of that money. It will go into some politicians slush fund and probably end up buying first class airline tickets and pay for parties...
 
This regulation was designed specifically for Facebook. It has to be enforced. And having worked with student data in the past, I can tell you that Facebook's complete lack of interest in securing those 50,000,000 people's data is actually quite shocking. I will continue to use the group's until a better option comes along.
 
I expect to get some grief over the following statements but oh well. Security should definitely be an issue that all users be concerned with and expect to some degree. When I go to a medical, banking, utility, or even basic online shopping, I expect, even at a bare minimum, the required levels of security-no exceptions.

On the other hand, people obsessed with social networking seem to go out of their way to bend over and spread 'em for all to see so they really shouldn't be surprised when anything exploits that position. It's also become medically documented about the addictions there in and potential psychological damage to the addicted.

People who want to defend it say its how they keep in touch with friends, family, etc. Well, we had functional ways of doing that before FB such as email, mail, and yeah lets not forget that handheld thing at one time was actually used to call people. Schools and companies use it as a platform for advertising themselves but in the past they used their own websites, or actual advertising. So many have given their power away to entities like FB so they wouldn't have to have the responsibility(fiscally or physically) that many wouldn't know what to do without and now they'll cry to the government they say shouldn't regulate anything to regulate this.
 
kju1 said:
And the people will never see a dime of that money. It will go into some politicians slush fund and probably end up buying first class airline tickets and pay for parties...
Click to expand...

What if tomorrow Facebook could be over? Isn't that worth fighting for? Isn't that worth dying for?
 
Aireoth said:
Just musing, the more I wonder if this is the scapegoat for Equifax...
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They never did get punished at all, did they? Just swept under the rug....


Zarathustra[H] said:
So what happens? They settle for peanuts, much less than the illicit activities actually gained them in profit, and these fines wind up being just a cost of doing business.

The childish notion that "all regulation is bad" is to blame here.
Click to expand...

I'm against overregulation. Some regulation is fine, but there are some businesses that cannot start because of the extremely high costs due to regulation. Or for insanely stupid things. Of course, my insanely stupid thing that needs regulated is someone else's good idea and vice versa.


kju1 said:
Why would I remember a B movie?
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You and I remember The Matrix completely differently. Far, far from a B movie.

Bee_Movie-bee-movie-12798775-566-576.jpg
 
only when it is about Trump, then we have politicians and every news media coming out to say that FB is violating our privacy and the such

as if selling of our data will end anytime soon. (targeted ads and all that. even the ones complaining are using it)
 
Ur_Mom said:
You and I remember The Matrix completely differently. Far, far from a B movie.

View attachment 60452
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LOL well I was bored throughout the thing and actually left the theater halfway through. I thought it was stupid. Personal opinion.

theBrownLlama said:
only when it is about Trump, then we have politicians and every news media coming out to say that FB is violating our privacy and the such

as if selling of our data will end anytime soon. (targeted ads and all that. even the ones complaining are using it)
Click to expand...

Sadly this is too profitable to end.
 
thesmokingman said:
You guys are thinking small, real small. FB should not be lumped in with others. FB has enabled shit that was just conspiracy theory on the American public, just crazy.
Click to expand...


Hmmm, someone has too much of a hardon for the orange cheeto and not enough for massive companies like facebook using user data as a political tool.


'They were on our side': Obama campaign director reveals Facebook ALLOWED them to mine American users' profiles in 2012 because they were supportive of the Democrats
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-director-reveals-Facebook-ALLOWED-data.html
 
kju1 said:
LOL well I was bored throughout the thing and actually left the theater halfway through. I thought it was stupid. Personal opinion.
Click to expand...

I know some people that hate that movie, but they recognize it as a well made and definitely not a B movie. They hated the story, the plot, the actors, the idea of the thing. Of course, they also hate Star Wars for the same reasons. They aren't people that you can call "friends". I'm sad I have to call them "in-laws".
 
LigTasm said:
Hmmm, someone has too much of a hardon for the orange cheeto and not enough for massive companies like facebook using user data as a political tool.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-director-reveals-Facebook-ALLOWED-data.html
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Eh? I'm not taking sides but pointing out that FB should not be considered small time like any other company that has had a data breach. This shit is on a whole other scale. That said, it's unclear what transpired in 2012. If anything it only adds to the fuel that is burning FB down atm.
 
And here i thought it was all those Russians with their 100k $ and their puny yet massive troll farms.
 
Ur_Mom said:
They never did get punished at all, did they? Just swept under the rug....

View attachment 60452
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Facebook was used for 50m people's information to influence their vote. They will die from this (or at least be severely beaten)

Equifax, the provider of credit scores and protector of identity lost 130m ish people's information, Congress makes moves to protect them.

Seems fair.
 
so the end of Facebook is near? which means millions of people will be getting their lives back. WIN WIN !
 
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