Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

According to media reports, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a roughly $5 billion settlement with Facebook, Inc. to resolve a privacy probe investigating whether Facebook had violated a prior FTC consent decree requiring the company to better protect user privacy. The investigation followed reports that Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed the personal data of 87 million Facebook users.

The FTC vote was 3-2, with the FTC’s three Republicans voting in support of the settlement and the two Democrats voting against it. The settlement has not yet been finalized by the Justice Department.

Update: On April 23, 2020, a federal court entered the 2019 FTC settlement order. The FTC has now voted 3-2 to modify its 2012 order with Facebook to include the updated requirements and consumer protection provisions from the 2019 settlement.