Facebook agrees to pay USD 5 billion penalty for privacy violations
Washington: Social media giant Facebook has agreed to "significantly enhance" its oversight practices and will pay a whopping USD 5 billion to the Federal Trade Commission as penalty for privacy violations, in the largest ever security fine imposed on any company for disregarding consumer information.
In addition to paying the record USD 5 billion in penalty, Facebook has also agreed to submit itself to new restrictions and a modified corporate structure that will hold the company accountable for the decisions it makes about its users' privacy.
Facebook agreed to all this in order to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that the company violated a 2012 FTC order by deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information.
"Among other matters, our settlement with the FTC requires us to pay a penalty of USD 5.0 billion and to significantly enhance our practices and processes for privacy compliance and oversight," Facebook said.
"In particular, we have agreed to implement a comprehensive expansion of our privacy programme, including substantial management and board of directors oversight, stringent operational requirements and reporting obligations, and a process to regularly certify our compliance with the privacy programme to the FTC," the social media giant said.
The USD 5 billion penalty against Facebook is the largest ever imposed on any company for violating consumers' privacy and almost 20 times greater than the largest privacy or data security penalty ever imposed worldwide.
It is one of the largest penalties ever assessed by the US government for any violation, FTC said.
The settlement order announced Wednesday also imposes unprecedented new restrictions on Facebook's business operations and creates multiple channels of compliance.
The order requires Facebook to restructure its approach to privacy from the corporate board-level down, and establishes strong new mechanisms to ensure that the company executives are accountable for the decisions they make about privacy, and that those decisions are subject to meaningful oversight.
"Despite repeated promises to its billions of users worldwide that they could control how their personal information is shared, Facebook undermined consumers' choices," said FTC Chairman Joe Simons.
"The magnitude of the USD 5 billion penalty and sweeping conduct relief are unprecedented in the history of the FTC. The relief is designed not only to punish future violations but, more importantly, to change Facebook's entire privacy culture to decrease the likelihood of continued violations," he said.
The Commission takes consumer privacy seriously, and will enforce FTC orders to the fullest extent of the law, he asserted.
According to Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt this settlement's historic penalty and compliance terms will benefit American consumers, and the Department expects Facebook to treat its privacy obligations with the utmost seriousness.
It is estimated that more than 2.1 billion people now use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger every day on average, and more than 2.7 billion people use at least one of these services each month.
Facebook said that online technology industry and the company had received increased regulatory scrutiny in the past quarter.
In June 2019, it was informed by the FTC that it had opened an antitrust investigation of the company. In addition, in July 2019, the Department of Justice announced that it will begin an antitrust review of market-leading online platforms.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Vinesh Phogat secures women's 50kg Paris Olympics quota for India
Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Apr 20: Looking as dominant as ever, Vinesh Phogat on Saturday locked Paris Olympics quota in women's 50kg category, reaching the final at the Asian Olympic Qualifier without conceding a single point, here Saturday.
It is India's second quota place for the Paris Games as Antim Panghal had earned a quota in the 53kg category with her bronze medal winning show at the World Championships last year.
The 29-year-old Vinesh has now secured her third straight Olympic quota, having featured in Rio Games (2016) and in Tokyo (2020) earlier.
Vinesh, who was a prominent face of protest against former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, dished out a strong performance, demolishing her opponents one by one.
As is her wont, Vinesh looked for that one opportunity to subdue Miran Cheon in her opening bout and grabbed it after measuring her Korean rival for about 30 seconds.
Once she grabbed Cheon and pushed her down for a take down, the bout ended in a jiffy, in one minute and 39 seconds.
It was difficult to wriggle out of Vinesh's strong hold. The Indian employed gut wrench move thrice and mixed that with one 'expose' to finish the bout.
The next bout lasted a mere 67 seconds. Cambodia's Smanang Dit was an easy prey. Vinesh pinned her in no time to move to the women's 50kg semifinal.
The celebrated Indian faced some resistance from 19-year-old Kazakh wrestler Laura Ganikyzy in the semifinals but she used all her experience to foil the attacks employed by her younger rival.
Twice Laura went for left-leg attacks but Vinesh scored on counter and led 4-0 by the end of the first period. This was the first time Vinesh was pushed to the second period in this tournament.
Once Vinesh got hold of Laura, she had no problem in employing consecutive gut wrench moves to finish the bout.
Vinesh was competing in the 50kg category after winning the selection trials.
The finalists at this competition are being awarded quota places for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
India can secure three more quotas through Anshu Malik (57kg), Mansi Ahlawat (62kg) and Reetika (76kg) as they have also reached the semifinals in their respective categories.
The 2021 World Championship silver medallist Anshu had no problem while putting it across Kyrgyzstan's Kalmira Bilimbekova in the quarterfinal, winning by technical superiority.
The U23 world champion Reetika did not have to break much sweat in outclassing Eunju Hwang.
She won the first round by technical superiority as the Korean had no answer to Reetika's class and got a similar win under her belt against Mongolia's Davaanasan Enkh Amar.
In the final group bout against China's Juang Wang, Reetika raced to a 8-0 lead but the Chinese fought back and logged six straight points.
She effected another move at the dying moments but much to the relief of the Indian camp, that point was not awarded because it came at the end of the stipulated time.
Mansi also made it to last-four as she needed to win just one bout. Up against Kazakhstan's Irina Kuznetsova, she emerged a 6-4 winner.
The only Indian wrestler who could not reach semifinals was Nisha Dahiya (68kg).
Nisha had to work hard for her opening win against Sol Gum Pak from North Korea. The Indian had raced to a 5-0 lead and maintained that till the first period, but the Korean put the pressure back on her rival with a strong resistance.
Immediately at the start of the second period, Pak successfully got a take-down move to get on to the scoreboard. However, Nisha kept pushing Pak out to extend her lead and eventually won 8-3.
Already exhausted, Nisha was outclassed by local favourite Meerim Zhumanazarova in round 2, in which she suffered a heavy defeat.
After falling behind 1-9, she was pinned by Meerim. Nisha could hardly employ any attacking move, and was mostly involved in standing wrestling.
In the must-win round 3, Nisha overpowered Kazakhstan's Yelena Shalygina but with Meerim losing her final group bout, Nisha did not have enough points to stay in top-four.
The last chance to win the Paris Games quota will be at the World Qualifiers in Turkey from May 9.
