Chopra Looks to States to Continue Where FTC Left Off in Facebook Probes
FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra told states’ attorneys general Monday “the ball really is in” their court to go deeper in their investigations of Facebook, which he hopes will delve further into the social media company’s data privacy practices than the FTC’s recently concluded probe. Commissioners voted 3-2 in July to approve a settlement with Facebook, which agreed to pay $5 billion and install an independent privacy committee to oversee compliance. Chopra and fellow Democratic Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter voted against the settlement (see 1907240042). GOP Commissioner Christine Wilson defended the strength of the FTC settlement during a National Association of Attorneys General conference.
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“I don’t think we truly did” get “to the bottom” of Facebook’s decisions in the lead-up to the Cambridge Analytica data breach or its intentional deception of users about how much control they have over their data, Chopra told NAAG. “We cut our investigation off too short" and "we still have states working their butts off to get the information that I think we should have gotten." The FTC “didn’t get a full set on answers” about “who really called the shots” in taking actions that clearly violated a 2012 FTC consent order, Chopra said. State AGs "have to all be working together shaping remedies that actually work" to address Facebook, including targeting the “dangers and divisiveness of behavioral advertising and experience-based” tracking.
Chopra criticized his agency for seeking only a $5 billion fine, saying “billions of dollars in penalties is not going to fundamentally change” the business incentives that led Facebook to violate the earlier consent order. The new pact requires Facebook produce an “unprecedented amount of documentation” on its privacy practices, but even this isn’t “actually going to deter” Facebook or force the company to solve problems with the underlying business model that monetized users’ data, he said. “Without some substantive limitations” on the “massive data dragnets they engage in, I’m not sure we actually moved the ball” forward.
Wilson said the accord sets a “new benchmark of accountability” for social media platforms and Facebook’s efforts to begin complying with the agreement even before it becomes final are a positive sign. The company “elevated profits over privacy” in its violations of the 2012 consent order, but the settlement is finally ensuring the firm creates a “culture of compliance,” she said. "It is having the effect of focusing not only [the company's executives'] minds, but also those of the employees." The settlement’s $5 billion fine isn’t “chump change” and is “much larger” than the EU has been able to obtain under general data protection regulation, Wilson said.
“We shall see” whether the fine and other conditions permanently change Facebook’s behavior, but it means CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now “on the hook," Wilson said. "If $5 billion” and more-stringent documentation requirements don’t do it, “we will be back” with an intent at meting out harsher penalties. “We have created” the correct incentives in the new settlement, but the arrangement also gives the federal government “additional tools” to monitor compliance far beyond what was implemented in the 2012 order, she said.
Chopra and Wilson acknowledged Congress needs to pass comprehensive data privacy legislation to give the FTC more resources and authority to better police social media platforms and other tech companies. Under current statute, the commission couldn’t have gotten any “more comprehensive relief” from Facebook than it did in the settlement, Wilson said. She cited bill negotiations (see 1912040045) between Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.