Facebook Flags Structural Changes In Light Of Record $7B Fine

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc., listens as Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, not pictured, speaks during a town hall meeting at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, U.S., on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015. Prime Minister Modi plans on connecting 600,000 villages across India using fiber optic cable as part of his
B&T Magazine
By B&T Magazine



Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission have reached a settlement which will see the social media giant pay a record US$5 billion (A$7.1 billion) fine for privacy violations.

Announcing the settlement via a Facebook post, the social media platform’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated significant changes would be put into place, alongside the fine.

“As part of this settlement, we’re bringing our privacy controls more in line with our financial controls under the Sarbanes-Oxley [also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act] legislation,” he said.

“Our executives, including me, will have to certify that all of the work we oversee meets our privacy commitments.”

He also suggested the company would take a more cautious, privacy-led approach – a far cry from the former motto of “move fast and break things”.

“Going forward, when we ship a new feature that uses data, or modify an existing feature to use data in new ways, we’ll have to document any risks and the steps we’re taking to mitigate them,” he said.

“We expect it will take hundreds of engineers and more than a thousand people across our company to do this important work. And we expect it will take longer to build new products following this process going forward.”

fb-socmed-tw-1200x600-pen

The FTC said the enormity of the fine was to reflect the scale of Facebook’s misconduct.

“The magnitude of the $5 billion penalty and sweeping conduct relief are unprecedented in the history of the FTC,” said FTC chairman Joe Simons

“The relief is designed not only to punish future violations but, more importantly, to change Facebook’s entire privacy culture to decrease the likelihood of continued violations. The Commission takes consumer privacy seriously, and will enforce FTC orders to the fullest extent of the law.”

It also suggested changes were being put in place to dilute Zuckerberg’s power over the company.




Please login with linkedin to comment

Facebook fine ftc

Latest News

Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm
  • Media

Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm

Sydney Comedy Festival 2024 is live and ready to rumble, showing the best of international and homegrown talent at a host of venues around town. As usual, it’s hot on the heels of its big sister, the giant that is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, picking up some acts as they continue on their own […]

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth
  • Advertising

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth

The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has announced the final epic lineup of local and global marketing powerhouses for RESET for Growth 2024. Lead image: Josh Faulks, chief executive officer, AANA  Back in 2000, a woman with no business experience opened her first juice bar in Adelaide. The idea was brilliantly simple: make healthy […]