Facebook hit with $5 billion fine by the US FTC for privacy violations

Following a lengthy negotiation process that took months, today Facebook has agreed to pay a $5 billion fine to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for user data privacy violations. The FTC's inquiry started after the Cambridge Analytica scandal last year, which harvested the personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent and used it for political advertising purposes. As part of the settlement, Facebook is promising to employ much better data privacy safeguards in the future. In the company's own words: We will be more robust in ensuring that we identify, assess...