Data protection specialists report on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decision to apply a $5 billion USD fine to Facebook due to multiple practices that violate several social media users’ privacy protection laws.
The FTC’s
decision has led to multiple unconformities because, after months of
debate and investigations into the social network well-known misconduct
practices in terms of privacy, a fine is a clearly insufficient measure to
address this problem. Some specialists even reported an increase in the value
of Facebook shares after this decision was disclosed.
This fine is the highest that the FTC has
imposed in its history on a technology company, far surpassing the record of
$22 million in fine for Google in 2012, data protection experts report.
Although $5 billion USD looks like an
incredibly high amount of money, it’s necessary to put things in perspective,
as it is one of the most important companies in the world; in the first quarter
of 2019, Facebook reported profits of more than $15 billion (in addition to $22
billion throughout 2018), so the FTC fine, while historical, remains a too weak
move; “This fine equates to one month’s profit for Facebook,” data
protection experts at the International Cyber Security Institute (IICS) say.
Financial specialists believe this reduced fine
only strengthens Facebook’s dominant position among the rest of the technology
and online service companies. “It is necessary to add another ‘0’ to that
fine for companies to really start working on protecting their users’ privacy;
reactive measures like this do not represent any improvement for companies with
capital like Facebook”, says Kara Swisher, a finance expert.
The FTC’s decision did not go unnoticed by
members of the U.S. Congress. Senator Ron Wyden, for example, stated that this
is a “miserably failed” decision, while other senators like Mark
Wagner believe Congress should intervene in the case.
As we have seen, such actions do not have a
positive impact on the experience of social media users. To achieve changes for
users, who rely on the use of these platforms for various day-to-day purposes,
governments need to take stronger action against the bad practices of social
media platforms. The solution should not be limited to just taking money from
Mark Zuckerberg’s pocket, as this is the easiest way for him to solve these
issues.
