AP, SAN FRANCISCOFacebook Inc might be facing the biggest fine ever imposed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over alleged privacy violations involving the personal information of its 2.2 billion users. The potential fine stems from a commission investigation opened after revelations that data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica had vacuumed up details about as many as 87 million Facebook users without their permission. The commission’s decree, which runs through 2031, requires Facebook to get its users’ consent to share their personal information in ways that are not allowed by their privacy settings. Just last month, the company acknowledged that a software flaw had exposed the photographs of about 7 million users to a wider audience than they had intended. The FTC’s five commissioners have discussed fining Facebook, but have not settled on the amount yet, the Washington Post reported.

Source: Taipei Times January 19, 2019 16:03 UTC