The Federal Trade Commission announced its settlement yesterday with Facebook over privacy violations dating back to December 2009, and the social network looks to have emerged from the situation a ‘roided-up slugger who lives to swing another day.
The charges against Facebook included publicizing private content, failing to delete content deleted by users, and worst of all, oversharing data with third party apps, the latter of which it most likely leveraged for profit. Though the FTC deemed the acts “unfair and deceptive,” the punishment handed down calls for 10 privacy audits over the next two decades—piss tests, if you will. No fines were dished out, but if Facebook violates the settlement, the company would be required to pay $16,000 daily per charge.
Mark Zuckerburg admitted to making “a bunch of mistakes” in a long blog post, though he might as well gloat. With Facebook’s IPO on the horizon, Facebook’s air of invincibility in the face of government regulation—according to Gawker, FB has two former FTC members on its payroll—is bound to be mighty attractive to potential investors.
[via New York Times and Gawker]
