The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stated on Monday, March 26, 2018 that Facebook’s data privacy has been breached. The social media giant’s shares then dropped over five percent.
USA Today reported that the company’s users are angry. Also, the company’s shareholders are losing money.
Critics of the corporation said that the social media giant should be held accountable for the misuse of approximately 50 million Facebook user’s personal data. Some of the criticizers are state attorney generals, lawmakers, and American and European regulators
USA Today reported that the probability of a repercussion of federal offenses against Facebook is at an all-time high. However, the online giant has previously been able to avoid such friction with the United States Federal Government.
Ryan Calo, who is a University of Washington law professor, stated that he would be quite anxious about the common regard if he was the CEO of Facebook. After the FTC said that it was investigating the high-tech enterprise, its company’s stock was in a dire state of being.
Attorney generals for 37 United States states and territories searched for facts on how the social media outlet supervised what app developers did with their user data. They checked if it had proper safeguards to keep the data from being misused, as well. Lawmakers demanded that CEO Mark Zuckerberg testify on Capitol Hill.
USA Today stated that some of the larger tech company’s CEOs have tried to project themselves as being more responsible for the treatment of their customer’s data. Mark Benioff, who is the CEO for Salesforce, issued a statement on Twitter. The statement said that spending too much time on social media is not healthy just like drinking or smoking too much.
Tim Cook, who is the CEO for Apple, stated that the well-crafted regulations are drastically needed because the dreadful situation has become so massive. Cook made the speech at the Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple Park Campus. He then said that the situation needs stricter data privacy laws.
The social media outlet stated that it denies granting the accused a collection of the SMS (text) history, data, and calls that belong to Android users. The accusations state that Facebook collects the data without their customer’s authority.
The internet giant said that they have always offered the user an opt-in option. The social media company stated in a public statement that they have not been logging people’s text and call history without their permission.
The internet company said that the contact information is uploaded when a user turns on a feature. The contact information then allows the platform to use the collected text when a call or text is sent out or received with Messenger and Facebook Lite services.
The corporation stated that it will not collect or use the classified information. It will not sell the data to a third party either.
Forbes Magazine reported that they “may not be toast, but maybe a crumbling corn muffin.” However, the tech-giant earns $4.2 billion a quarter. It carries 2 holds, 44 buys, and 2 sells and it has an average price tag of $221. Forbes reported that is not going to vanish, despite a breach in Facebook’s personal data.
By John A. Federico
Edited by Jeanette Smith
Sources:
USA Today: Facebook’s FTC probe rocked the stock. But will anything rein in Facebook?
Valuewalk: Facebook: We Never Log Call And SMS History Without Permission
Forbes: Is Facebook Toast?
Featured Image Courtesy of Darren Mckeeman’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Top Image Courtesy of Aminul Islam Sajib’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License