BP: US government issues $5 billion fine against Facebook for repeated privacy violations

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government on Wednesday issued an unprecedented rebuke of Facebook after a year of massive privacy mishaps, charging that the company deceived its users and "undermined" choices they made to protect their data as part of a settlement that requires the tech giant to pay $5 billion and submit to significant federal oversight of its business practices.

Sixteen months after opening its investigation, the Federal Trade Commission alleged that Facebook had repeatedly misled its 2.2 billion users. The agency argued that the social-networking company was not upfront about the ways app developers, advertisers and others gained access to users' personal data - from the content they "liked" to the phone numbers they stored - in a breach of Facebook's previous promise to improve its privacy protections online.

https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/business/technology/4036366-US-government-issues-5-billion-fine-against-Facebook-for-repeated-privacy-violations