In a testimony to Congress today, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook said the company didn’t notify the Federal Trade Commission because “They considered it as a close case”. The same exact words were said by him when he was asked a question about whether anyone within the company has notified the FTC.
The access to Facebook’s user data was gained improperly by Cambridge Analytica using a Quiz App developed by Third Party Developer.
There was a statement issued when Tom Pahl was acting as the director of the Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers. Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises, including to comply with Privacy Shield, or that engage in unfair acts that cause substantial injury to consumers in violation of the FTC Act. Companies who have settled previous FTC actions must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements. Accordingly, the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook. Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices.
There was a deal in place between the FTC and The Facebook stating that the company will be barred from by the SEC for making misrepresentations about security and privacy of customer personal information, furthermore it is also required from the company to acquire express consent before changing privacy preferences.
Additionally there is an agreement between the Facebook and SEC about the user privacy to establish and maintain a complete privacy program intended to address privacy risks linked with the development and management of new and existing products and services, and to protect the privacy and confidentiality of customer information.
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Source: CNBC, TechCrunch