FTC to hit Facebook with $5 billion fine

[Arnold]

FTC to hit Facebook with $5 billion fine

River Twice President Zachary Karabell and independent tech expert Lance Ulanoff discuss how the FTC is expected to fine Facebook a record-setting $5 billion and Liz Claman?s interview with Logan Paul.

Facebook Opens a New Window. ?s settlement with federal regulators will require the social media Opens a New Window. juggernaut to create an independent board charged with overseeing privacy-related efforts at all levels of the company.

The Federal Trade Commission announced its settlement with Facebook on Wednesday morning, ending a more than year-long probe into whether the tech giant violated a 2012 order -- in which the company promised to protect consumers? information -- about privacy after it inadvertently allowed political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access the personal data of millions of users.

The deal also includes a $5 billion penalty for Facebook and a requirement that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will personally certify that the company is meeting the FTC?s requirements on a quarterly and annual basis. A false statement could result in potential penalties, including both criminal and civil charges.

"The accountability required by this agreement surpasses current U.S. law and we hope will be a model for the industry," Facebook said in a statement Opens a New Window. on Wednesday. "It introduces more stringent processes to identify privacy risks, more documentation of those risks, and more sweeping measures to ensure that we meet these new requirements."

Additional penalties for Facebook include a ban from using phone numbers to enable security features, such as two-factor authentication, and a prohibition on asking for email passwords to other services when consumers first sign-up. Per the agreement, Facebook also must exercise greater oversight of third-party apps.

The privacy demands extend to WhatsApp and Instagram, which Facebook owns, and any new product that it creates.

?We are not relying on Facebook to police itself, and we are no longer relying on Mr. Zuckerberg unilaterally to make decisions that will affect consumer privacy,? FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson said during a FOX Business interview. ?The order creates a robust system of checks and balances that spreads responsibility and accountability for consumer privacy and the attendant risks throughout the corporation.?

The FTC is also taking action against Cambridge Analytics, its former CEO Alexander Nix and Alexsandr Kogan, an app developer who worked with the company, alleging the firm used false and deceptive tactics to collect personal information from about 87 million people.

U.S. regulators are expected to settle charges with Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, over alleged violations by YouTube over children's online privacy rights.

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/technol...uired-to-certify-compliance-in-ftc-settlement

 

[REHH]

Drop in the bucket for them

 

[Gregzs]

Facebook Said It Wasn't Listening to Your Conversations. It Was.

Facebook isn't randomly turning on your microphone to sell you more targeted ads, as some conspiracy theories have asserted ??*? but on Tuesday, the social media giant admitted that it has, in fact, been listening in on some users? conversations.

Following an investigation by Bloomberg, the company admitted that it had been employing third-party contractors to transcribe the audio messages that users exchanged on its Messenger app.

The company said the messages used were ?totally de-identified audio snippets used to improve AI transcription of messages from people who had opted into transcription on Messenger.?

The company says the practice has now been stopped, at least temporarily. There is no indication that Facebook has used the information it collected to sell ads.

?Much like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago,? a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement. When asked if the practice was likely to be restarted, the company declined to answer.

So what was Facebook?s excuse for listening to users' audio? Everyone else was doing it.

A Facebook spokesperson told VICE News that the practice was ?very common in tech? ??*? at least until a week ago, when media reports revealed that Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft were all capturing and listening to audio from users? devices.

In April, Bloomberg reported that Amazon was employing thousands of people to listen to what users say to its Alexa-powered speakers. Then, in July, Belgian broadcaster VRT obtained more than 1,000 audio recordings captured by Google, and the company admitted that the recordings underwent human review.

Last month, the Guardian revealed that Apple captured what its users were telling Siri, and reviewed those recordings to grade Siri?s responses.

And last week, an investigation by Motherboard revealed that Microsoft was using human contractors to carry out quality assurance on recordings for the company?s Cortana voice assistant.

All the companies, including Facebook, said the data was stripped of any identifying information and was only used to improve their products, and not to help tailor ads to users.

Facebook says it followed the lead of other companies to ?limit human review of non-public audio.? When asked if it also captures audio from its Portal video calling product, the company declined to answer.

The revelation is just the latest in a long string of privacy violations the company has admitted to in recent years, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which compromised the data of 87 million users, and a 2018 hack that exposed the personal information of 50 million users. Just last month, the company last month agreed a $5 billion fine with the FTC after an investigation of privacy practices.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked by Congress last year about Facebook purportedly listening to people?s conversations without permission.

?You?re talking about this conspiracy theory that gets passed around that we listen to what?s going on on your microphone and use that for ads,? Zuckerberg said. ?We don?t do that.?

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...-wasnt-listening-to-your-conversations-it-was