Facebook recorded a $3bn legal expense “in connection with the inquiry of the FTC into our platform and user data practices”, the company said. The inquiry has focused on whether the data practices that allowed Cambridge Analytica to obtain Facebook user data violated the company’s 2011 agreement with the FTC. Facebook and the FTC have reportedly been negotiating over the settlement, which will dwarf the prior largest penalty for a privacy lapse, a $22.5m fine against Google in 2012. Facebook needs to show that it’s improving on user data practices and content management, said Jessica Liu, a marketing analyst for Forrester. “Its track record has been atrocious,” Liu said of Facebook’s data handling.

Source: The Guardian April 24, 2019 20:40 UTC