A 16-month-long federal investigation into Facebook’s privacy violations is expected to result in a record $5 billion fine for the tech giant. But a Washington Post review of the probe and the negotiations that led to the settlement shows that the FTC initially considered a much higher fine and much tougher restrictions on Facebook’s operations.
In the end, though, the federal agency settled for less, hamstrung by the nation’s lack of a consumer privacy law and uncertain about its chances in court against a foe whose annual revenues were 200 times the agency’s budget.
—-The Washington Post
It pays to have deep pockets. But $5 billion is better than nothing.
Facebook is still in there trying:
Facebook is trying to rebuild trust in Washington as it seeks the go-ahead to launch a new cryptocurrency. But a recent wave of fake accounts pretending to sell or represent the still-unavailable Libra, could undermine efforts to win over lawmakers and regulators.
—The Washington Post
Even if it were to convince lawmakers and regulators, do you think people would trust it?
July 23, 2019
Our lack of privacy laws is something law makers SHOULD work on but I bet they never will.
There are all sorts of things they should be doing. 😀
I love how Facebook connects me to my family and friends. But I’m very careful what I share there. I don’t take the quizzes, and I don’t play the games – And this week when I heard that the “aging app” that everyone was playing around with and having fun with was actually Russian in origin, I’m reminded why I don’t. And I’ll confess, that a couple of my personal details that I don’t share “publicly” aren’t exactly right – In case my account gets hacked.
That’s smart.
I think there’s no privacy already.
“They” know everything about us.
Therefore I think we should trust nothing.
Especially anything to do with our finances.
Soon they will want to micro-chip us all.
Luckily I have a pretty good plan to avoid a lot of those problems.
I’m too poor and boring for anyone to bother getting info on me.
😉
😀 That works too.
I came to conclusion that there no privacy and if you want or need privacy stay off the computer.
Coffee is on
I’m afraid you’re probably right.
yep, the Net is certainly a “net” in that it has you which ever way you jump…I try to be as “innocent” as possible, but also I try to abide by the rules (if I think there are rules)…
doing the rounds by telephone here, is issues about your landline being cut off as you are with S***K – which I’m not with that company at all…I don’t give them the time of day – and there is always a gap in their “spiel” . However, I nearly hang up the other day on a “gap” to discover it was a genuine caller about my friends medical alarm check…
Andy and I have an answering machine and never pick up the phone until we hear who the caller is. Mostly they’re just robocalls so we save a lot of time.
I think that there are always going to be people who will trust and believe in anything and there are those who trust nothing. As far as privacy goes, if you are on the internet, nothing is private.
Even if you’re not on the internet. Remember the Equifax data breach a couple of years ago, and all sorts of sites have data on us that are potential targets. Some of my personal data was hacked from a government site with faulty security a few years ago, so I pay for identity ID protection from a reputable company. And some of their data has been stolen too.
As Ashleigh Brilliant says, “I feel so much better now that I have given up hope.” 😀