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F.T.C. Approves Facebook Fine of About $5 Billion
The Federal Trade Commission has approved a fine of roughly $5 billion against Facebook for mishandling users' personal information, according to three people briefed on the vote, in what would be a landmark settlement that signals a newly aggressive stance by regulators toward the country's most powerful technology companies.
The much-anticipated settlement still needs final approval in the coming weeks from the Justice Department, which rarely rejects settlements reached by the agency. It would be the biggest fine by far levied by the federal government against a technology company, easily eclipsing the $22 million imposed on Google in 2012. The size of the penalty underscored the rising frustration among Washington officials with how Silicon Valley giants collect, store and use people's information.
It would also represent one of the most aggressive regulatory actions by the Trump administration, and a sign of the government's willingness to punish one of the country's biggest and most powerful companies. President Trump has dialed back regulations in many industries, but the Facebook settlement sets a new bar for privacy enforcement by United States officials, who have brought few cases against large technology companies.
Also at Reuters, CNBC, The Verge, MarketWatch, and CNN.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 13 2019, @05:54PM (9 children)
That's O.K. - $5B paid to the US treasury is $14.30 per US citizen. If my 4 person household's income taxes can be reduced by $57 every time Fecebook pays one of these "meaningless" fines, I say: let them pay one per quarter until they start handling private data more carefully, and send our household a $200 tax rebate every year - as long as that is happening, Facebook can continue to abuse their users' privacy for as long as they want to.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Saturday July 13 2019, @10:34PM
Hey, if you don't like the way we do things in America [youtu.be], go to Ru-- er, Europe.
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Saturday July 13 2019, @10:40PM
Wait a second -- forget income tax rebates, and reuse your +1 Insightful typo:
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 15 2019, @03:56AM (6 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 15 2019, @12:26PM (5 children)
The thing about Facebook, Apple, and all the other cash hoarding tech giants is that those "corporate war chests" are just as good for the economy as throwing the cash down a salt mine. Until it gets out of the offshore tax havens, out from the "reserve cash" storage accounts, it is absolutely worthless.
At least government pork feeds corrupt contractors, their families, and their service providers.
Plus, what's this recurring Republican promise for "smaller government through tax cuts?" If there's a new $20B annual revenue stream, that should be reflected somehow in tax cuts - and I have to believe that even if those tax cuts are 90% given to the 1%, that's a far wider distribution of funds than is achieved via the Zuckerberg hegemony, or even the Gates-Buffet initiative that, while noble, is also glacial in its release of essentially frozen assets trickling down to the projects slower than Greenland's melt water.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 15 2019, @01:16PM (4 children)
Which is a large part of why I support ending it! Think of how beneficial it would be to the US economy to end most of that rent seeking and corruption? Those people could, if they choose, be gainfully employed as well in businesses that don't revolve around forcibly stealing from the US public. Again, you're not coming close to providing a reason why $5 billion of Facebook is better in the hands of said corrupt contractors than it is as a line on a Facebook accounting sheet somewhere.
It's just the usual economic illiteracy on a relatively small scale.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 15 2019, @03:27PM (3 children)
Put the pork feeders out of work and a sizeable chunk of them will end up on public assistance for a long time.
Yes, I'd like to see Government contracts competitively bid and implemented by the best available contractors, transparently administered - audited for efficiency and held to standards that, if not met, result in contracts being assigned to contractors who do meet the ever increasing standards. Corruption has been part of human condition since the first tax collector made his rounds, eternal vigilance and waste reduction must be part of the system in order to keep the benefits of government in excess of the downsides. All in all, while we can always do better, I think we're performing somewhere near historical record good in that area +0/-30%, depending where you look and how you count.
Meanwhile, $20B in offshore accounts isn't doing anybody a damn bit of good, except a few offshore bankers - it's comparable to the social benefit provided by despot dictators. Boards of directors put old-boy politics to shame when it comes to failing to serve their constituents.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 16 2019, @09:56AM (2 children)
So what? Even if true, at least it's cheaper.
Last I heard, it's well over a trillion dollars. I'm more concerned about the corruption this represents than the "bit of good" one hypothetically can do by dumping this money into more corruption.
You're not their constituents unless, of course, you own enough of the business.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 16 2019, @12:19PM (1 child)
Facebook alone hoarding a trillion? I was putting $20B out there as a typical single tech giant cash hoard.
Corruption itself is somewhat a matter of perspective - I'm more concerned about the relative outcomes.
Every shareholder, and investor in mutual funds which hold shares, are the constituents of the boards of directors - in theory it is their duty to direct actions in the interests of those share holders. Through my mutual fund holdings, I probably cover >50% of the S&P 2000. As compared to the federal executive branch which serves 350M+ constituents, I am more a constituent of those boards (at least by head-count...) Of course, in the corporate world it's not one person one vote, but one dollar one vote, and the largest few holders of value tend to hold sway, even if they only hold a few percent of the total value. They take the position: so sue us, placing the burden on the dispersed majority value holders to organize and mount suit to get things changed.
Meanwhile, money flows toward growth, growth exploits the environment and everything else it can get away with, and ultimately our investments will eat our children.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 16 2019, @01:57PM
How many typical tech giant hoards do you think are out there? One?
I was putting that number out because I heard it was in the neighborhood of what's in those tax shelter countries that the taxation people never like. Come to think of it, I'm probably low by a factor of ten.
I am too. But I remember that parasites don't make it easy for the host to get rid of them.
Not true.
Not true. In particular, your mutual fund, using your holdings covers 50+% of the S&P 2000. Their managers do all the voting. You're just some dope along for the ride.
Examples of such growth are public pension funds like US Social Security which have declining expected returns on investment as one gets younger (it's not much as a pension, but it still consumes ~15% of a person's wages), health care oriented towards the elderly like oh, US Medicare which pay out more net than the recipients have collectively put in, and a few other programs biased towards exploiting the youth of the world.