Report: Federal Trade Commission Investigating Facebook Over Use of Personal Data

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Facebook “violated terms of a 2011 consent decree over its handing of user data that was transferred to Cambridge Analytica without their knowledge,” according to Bloomberg. The New York Times reports that the investigation “started in recent days.” The FTC told both outlets that they “cannot comment on whether we are investigating.” If the commission finds the social network violated the terms of consent decree, they are able to fine the company “more than $40,000 a day per violation,” Bloomberg reports. Facebook said in the statement that they rejected “any suggestion of violation of the consent decree...We respected the privacy settings that people had in place. Privacy and data protections are fundamental to every decision we make.” This comes as a whistleblower said that private data of 50 million Facebook users was collected without consent, and after the CEO of Cambridge Analytica was caught on tape offering blackmail services of political opponents to undercover reporters. Cambridge Analytica was hired by the Trump campaign in the 2016 election.