Facebook Books Charge for Upcoming FTC Fine
Posted on 04/25/2019
Facebook Inc. booked a US$ 3 billion charge in the first quarter of 2019, estimating a fine by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC is looking to punish Facebook for violating a consent decree on user privacy.
“We estimate that the range of loss in this matter is $3 billion to $5 billion,” Facebook disclosed in its news release. “The matter remains unresolved, and there can be no assurance as to the timing or the terms of any final outcome.”
In the last few months, Facebook disclosed a number of missteps in procedures including lax internal password storage. Furthermore, Facebook recently admitted, since 2016, they had unintentionally uploaded email addresses of 1.5 million people without their consent. Consequently, New York Attorney General Letitia James disclosed to the media that she would open an investigation into Facebook’s unauthorized collection those emails.
