It appears that both former and current officials at the FTC are worried about Facebook’s sharing of personal data. In the recent revelation of Facebook’s data sharing with Cambridge Analytica and how it might have violated the FTC consent decree, FTC is looking to have their concerns addressed.
Sources have told Bloomberg claiming that the FTC is probing Facebook to determine whether the company broke the decree by allowing Cambridge Analytica obtain users’ data without their permission. If Facebook is found to have done this, the FTC could potentially fine up to $40,000 per person, though it may be unlikely seeing as there are around 50 million affected users. It would be a big bill that Facebook would have to face.
The FTC would have to devote significant amount of time and resources for the agency to investigate and come to a definitive conclusion. If the FTC were to get involved, it will join several other state-level, UK and European investigations are are underway. Not only that, Members of Congress want answers about this, too. While Facebook is working to try and solve this scandal on its own terms, it may be too late to avoid some serious legal repercussions, especially since the company knew about the data sharing back in 2015.
