Facebook agrees to pay $5 billion penalty for privacy violations

Social media giant Facebook has agreed to “significantly enhance” its oversight practices and will pay a whopping $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 $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.