facebook Federal Trade Commission FTC in re Facebook
FTC Confirms Investigation Into Facebook about 2011 Consent Order
The Federal Trade Commission has confirmed an investigation into Facebook for the company's failure to protect the personal data obtained by Cambridge Analytica. Facebook likely violated the FTC's 2011 Consent Order with the company. Last week, EPIC and a coalition of consumer organizations urged the FTC to reopen the investigation. EPIC and other consumer organizations brought the complaint that led to the FTC's 2011 Order. Thomas Pahl, the Acting Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection stated today, "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." In a recent article for Techonomy, EPIC President Marc Rotenberg emphasized that "the transfer of 50 million user records to the controversial data mining and political consulting firm could have been avoided if the Federal Trade Commission had done its job."