Facebook expects privacy fine of up to 5 billion U.S. dollars

Facebook expects to get a fine of between $3 billion and $5 billion from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The company announced this at the presentation of its quarterly figures. Earlier, there were rumors of a billion-dollar fine.

According to the quarterly figures, Facebook has set aside 3 to 5 billion dollars to pay the fine of the FTC. The money is also available for other costs related to the FTC’s research. “The matter remains undecided and there can be no assurance as to the timing or conditions of a financial outcome”, according to the social medium.

The FTC began an investigation into Facebook last year, after the privacy scandal with Cambridge Analytics came to light. It turned out that Cambridge Analytica had wrongly obtained the data of millions of users in order to draw up political profiles. By doing so, the company wanted to influence the elections.

In February, The Washington Post reported that Facebook would negotiate a settlement with the FTC on that scandal. It also became clear that the FTC would consider imposing its highest fine ever. The highest fine so far handed out by the FTC was one for Google in 2012, worth 22.5 million dollars.

Quarterly figures

Facebook’s quarterly figures also show that the company’s turnover in the first three months of this year was nearly $15.1 billion. That is an increase of 26% compared to the same period last year. The net profit was 2.4 billion dollars, which is half as much as last year, due to the separate penalty money.

The daily and monthly number of active users increased to 1.56 billion and 2.38 billion people respectively. This is an increase of 8% for both categories compared to the first three months of 2018.