Record-setting fine against Facebook for privacy violations

It's about damn time! I've been waiting for someone to finally pick this up and actually do something about it. Facebook has finally upset enough people over privacy concerns that they will likely have to pay a record amount of money as a fine. It's been a long time coming and this might only be a small step but it's at least a step in the right directions.

I know that my information alone probably isn't much and is only a drop in the billion dollar industry of stealing personal information, but dammit, it's mine and no one has the right to take it without my permission. Not in the sort of under handed tactics that they use with endless user agreements that no one reads.... but out right ask me for it and pay me for it. If my information is worth something, it'll be worth a price that I put on it, not Facebook.

Source

U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for violating a legally binding agreement with the government to protect the privacy of its users' personal data, according to three people familiar with the deliberations but not authorized to speak on the record.

The fine under consideration at the Federal Trade Commission, a privacy and security watchdog that began probing Facebook last year, would mark the first major punishment levied against Facebook in the United States since reports emerged in March that Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, accessed personal information on about 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge.

The penalty is expected to be much larger than the $22.5 million fine the agency imposed on Google in 2012. That fine set a record for the greatest penalty for violating an agreement with the FTC to improve its privacy practices.

Personally, I hope FB and all the rest of them get pummeled into the ground with fines!

It's pretty shady that you don't even need a FB account to have your information stolen. Google got hit before but apparently they haven't been hit hard enough. Time to do it again.

a reply to: StallionDuck

"it's mine and no one has the right to take it without my permission."

-- genius who willingly gave personal info to facebook

originally posted by: hombero
a reply to: StallionDuck

"it's mine and no one has the right to take it without my permission."

-- genius who willingly gave personal info to facebook

-- genius who assumes whatever he wants with no facts to back it up.

Do your homework before you bring that crap at me.


Facebook can have your data even if you're not on Facebook

a reply to: StallionDuck

Its amazing to me the profound ignorance surrounding these issues.

I recently wrote a thread about Facebook selling my messages without telling anyone. That didn't stop the influx of ignorant poster telling me it's in the user agreement when IT IS NOT.

They STOLE private messages for 10 #ing years and told no one about it.

a reply to: StallionDuck


When will someone go to jail???
I refuse to applaud the fine for one simple reason. It means nothing to a multi national corporation to be fined. They are still making millions/billions. Fining them is like telling them to take a time out.

If corporations are people when it comes to campaign contributions then they should be treated like people when they violate the law. Time for some prison sentencing for these criminals!

a reply to: StallionDuck

Much larger than 22.5 million

Ya... lets hope so... cuz Zuckerberg got that stashed in his shoe.

Fining AFTER the fact is really just like the most unsatisfying p!ss poor solution to a problem.

I say shut Facebook down and watch it's users go absolutely BALLISTIC.

A step in the right direction for certain. However, a 22.5 million dollar fine is nothing to a conglomerate like Face Book. They have billions of subscribers and a plethora of information, I am willing to bet they made much more from the subscribers that receive that information.

I am not exactly a techophobe, I struggle at times to make my laptop turn on when I want it too, damn sleep mode. Let's pretend for a moment that I am one of the elite hackers in the world. I design a program to trawl various internet sites scalping people's personal info to sell on the dark web. I get caught up in an FBI investigation and caught, I would be going to jail not paying the equivalent 2 thousand dollar fine.

If it's illegal behavior, then the companies participating in that criminal activity should be dissolved and their assets distributed to those victimized. The corporate leaders who participated in any illegal activities should forfeit equivalent personal assets and be sentenced by a Judge after being found guilty in a court of law and by Jury of their peers, the very people they victimized. Until that happens, it will be business as usual but now they will get better at hiding it.

a reply to: seeker1963

I'm 100% on board with that.

Didn't Bush Jr sign some law that made it nearly impossible to convict big business owners? Still trying to find it but Google doesn't like my search terms.

The information they got was worth the fine to them, I'm sure.

Can I get some of this zuckerburg money?

Everyone should get some money

a reply to: StallionDuck

The misconception in your post is that the President, be they Republican or Democrat has the authority to pass anything. That job belongs to members of Congress, a President can only sign or not sign a particular law into being. Congress and the ilk they hang around with are good at putting items into a bill and giving a title like for instance Free Money For All and adding in a measure with a title of, oh let's say Anybody Who Accepts Free Money from the recently 0assed Free Money for All program will be executed.

That last little part is buried beneath a mammoth of other insane Bill's authorizing say Congressional pay raises so when a bill is or isnt signed into law, then they can say 9h look the President is against Free Money for All when he may actually be against the other law that executes those getting free money. The President does not make or pass laws, perhaps your search results will give you better results if you keep that little bit in mind.

These tech geeks are the oil barons of our time. There is a reason Obama was closer to the honchos at Google than he was his own cabinet. And why I warned that while breaking the telecommunications monopoly would be a good thing, it wasn't going to be in the way the Obama administration was framing it because he was just trying to squash a mini-monopoly of corporate tyrants and funneling all the power to one central corporate mega-tyrant that he happened to be in bed with.

Never ceases to amaze me when people fight so incessantly over which side is on the side of the people when the clear answer is none of them are. You're on your own. Anyone telling you otherwise is simply using you for their own gain.

Another virtual slap on the hand...pun intended.

As someone has already said, "shut them down" until they make the necessary changes, but we all know that isn't going to happen.

Just another token prosecution to keep the peasants satiated.

The fine isn't large enough. That's a drop in the bucket for these tech giants.

Imprisonment of executives and corporate policy makers would be a preferable course of action, along with seisure & auction of corporate assets to pay damages to those whose privacy was violated.

Never used face book never will, therefore I cannot be violated.

a reply to: StallionDuck

originally posted by: projectvxn
a reply to: StallionDuck

Its amazing to me the profound ignorance surrounding these issues.

I recently wrote a thread about Facebook selling my messages without telling anyone. That didn't stop the influx of ignorant poster telling me it's in the user agreement when IT IS NOT.

They STOLE private messages for 10 #ing years and told no one about it.

Facebook does a lot worse then that. I will explain.
I saw something on Amazon that i wanted so i wished it on Amazon for a possible buy in the near future. Then out of a nowhere i saw the product that i wanted on Amazon on Facebook adverts.

Facebook is stealing your internet user data when you log into online stores whatever its eBay or what not. Facebook has no rights to do this its a privacy violation.

a reply to: Athetos

...therefore I cannot be violated.

Oh ye of little knowledge...

One of the more interesting takeaways to come out of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s multi-day congressional testimony last week was confirmation that the social giant collects data from people online even if they don’t have a Facebook account.

Also interesting: There’s no way to avoid it.

Is there any way to stop Facebook from collecting my data if I don’t have an account?

No. There is no way to opt out of this kind of data collection. You can avoid the internet (!), but even then, friends or family who share their contact list with Facebook may be giving the company your data.

This is how Facebook collects data on you even if you don’t have an account
There’s little you can do about it.

A profile compiled of my browser history and my friends eh...well.... their in for a treat them.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

a reply to: StallionDuck

Might sound a lot but how much is it compared to annual turnover?

If corporate fines were expressed as a % of annual turnover or of annual profits, or a combo thereof, then it would be more meaningful.

After 15 yeas of legal action and 3 suicides in a 250 person fishing town, Exxon finally settled and paid out a sum that was equal to just 3 days worth of profits.

Saw the doco on Aus TV about 10 years ago.

originally posted by: DJMSN
a reply to: StallionDuck

The misconception in your post is that the President, be they Republican or Democrat has the authority to pass anything. That job belongs to members of Congress, a President can only sign or not sign a particular law into being. Congress and the ilk they hang around with are good at putting items into a bill and giving a title like for instance Free Money For All and adding in a measure with a title of, oh let's say Anybody Who Accepts Free Money from the recently 0assed Free Money for All program will be executed.

That last little part is buried beneath a mammoth of other insane Bill's authorizing say Congressional pay raises so when a bill is or isnt signed into law, then they can say 9h look the President is against Free Money for All when he may actually be against the other law that executes those getting free money. The President does not make or pass laws, perhaps your search results will give you better results if you keep that little bit in mind.

I'll rephrase...

Didn't Bush Jr sign something into law that had to do with making a business a person, or something similar. A person or not a person etc... Whatever it was, it gave corporations a lot of power on the legal side of things.