FTC Begins Investigating Facebook Over Irregular Data Practices
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has confirmed it is investigating Facebook over controversial data practices that recently came to light.
According to the Tom Pahl, Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection:
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.
The probe is the result of Facebook’s involvement with Cambridge Analytica, the London-based analytics firm which apparently gathered personal data from the social network for clients during the 2016 U.S. presidential election
