Mark Zuckerberg’s company Facebook is on the verge of facing a penalty of $22.5 million by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). And if this penalty turns into a reality, this could be the biggest fine ever imposed on any company in the history of North America.
FTC is now not in a position to react to this news and situation due to the government shutdown.
Readers of Cybersecurity Insiders have to notify a point over here that fine was imposed after a serious investigation made by the law enforcement confirmed that Facebook shared the data of more than 87 million American users with a UK based data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica which later used that data to influence the results of US 2016 polls in favor of Donald Trump.
Note 1- In the year 2011, Facebook made an agreement with the government of United States that it will not share the data of its users until they manually report to do so via their privacy settings. This agreement which is a kind of pledge runs till 2031 and if the FTC finds that the social media giant has breached the agreement, then the Facebook will be asked to pay the said amount of fine in a period of 90 days- where the company will be allowed to go for a re-appeal against the order.
Note 2- In the year 2018, Facebook revealed that it all kinds of business ties with Cambridge Analytica in 2015 and has assured since then that no third party apps are allowed to share the data of its users.
