Facebook is in talks with the US Federal Trade Commission for a settlement over privacy violations which could amount to an unspecified but record breaking multi-billion dollar fine, reports the New York Times. The talks revolve around the agency’s investigation into whether the tech giant violated an earlier 2011 settlement with the FTC (more below). The present probe relates to an investigation the FTC launched after it emerged that Cambridge Analytica had harvested the information of 87 million people via Facebook without their consent. In the present case FTC staffers had met the commissioners in December, and found evidence of the violation of the 2011 agreement. FTC staff make a formal recommendation, which then goes to vote by the agency’s commissioners. The recommendation may or may not go through, depending on the vote. Some FTC officials are pushing for maximum fines citing privacy breaches by Facebook The agency can impose up to $41,000 in penalty for each violation it finds In the 2011 settlement, Facebook had promised multiple measures to protect user privacy after the agency found the company’s data collection and processing to be harmful to users. The agreement required Facebook to a) seek users’ permission to share their data with third parties, and b) notify the commission if a third-party misuses the data. The agreement also tied Facebook to 20 years of privacy checkups to ensure compliance. About a month ago, US regulators met to discuss a possible penalty against Facebook in this case, reported Washington Post. The publication…
