The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has approved a settlement with Facebook that will see the social network pay a $5 billion fine over the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.
The Wall Street Journal reports the matter has been moved to the Justice Department’s civil division. WSJ’s source tells them it’s unclear as to how long it will take to finalize the settlement. The Justice Department as a rule reviews FTC settlements, but seldom change the decisions.
Any settlement is also expected to include other government restrictions on how Facebook treats privacy. Additional terms of the settlement were not available.
The scandal involved a 2015 quiz app developed by Cambridge Analytica and Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan, which collected data not only about Facebook users who took the quiz, but also their connected friends on the social network, allowing CA to build voter profiles for approximately 71 million U.S. residents during the 2016 campaign.
The data collection came through an app called “This Is Your Digital Life,” which told Facebook users that the survey would be used for academic use.
Although Facebook revamped its privacy practices following the exposure of the scandal, it has still faced close scrutiny by regulators due to multiple security lapses.
