The Federal Trade Commission announced today a $5 billion settlement with Facebook related to its investigation into privacy breaches allowed by the social media network.
The commission found that Facebook violated the law by allowing third parties to collect users' private data, including phone numbers. Facebook's $5 billion penalty is the second-largest fine ever levied by the Federal Trade Commission. In addition to the fine, Facebook will be required to conduct a privacy review of every product and service it develops, and then submit those reviews to a third-party assessor. Facebook will also be required to pay an additional $100 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to disclose security breaches to its investors.
Facebook issued a statement regarding the settlement saying, "The agreement will require a fundamental shift in the way we approach our work and it will place additional responsibility on people building our products at every level of the company. It will mark a sharper turn toward privacy, on a different scale than anything we’ve done in the past.”
So basically, if you were concerned about Facebook mishandling its users' information... you were right.
(NBC News)