Facebook's deal with the FTC to put the company under 20 years of oversight over privacy policies

Facebook could be fined as much as $5bn for violating a 2011 agreement over data privacy with the US Federal Trade Commission

A deal between Facebook and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the company's privacy policies could put Facebook under FTC supervision for the next 20 years.

An agreement between the two is expected to be concluded soon after the FTC accused Facebook of violating a 2011 agreement to keep all user data private. Under that agreement, the company pledged to get users' explicit permission before sharing their data with third parties.

However, the recent scandals involving political consultancy Cambridge Analytica and a number of other organisations indicate that the company egregiously broke that agreement.

The FTC is now conducting an investigation to determine whether Facebook's practices violated their 2011 agreement.

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At the same time, the FTC and Facebook have been in talks to settle the matter. Last month in its latest quarterly results, Facebook stated that it had set aside $3 billion to pay a possible penalty related to the FTC probe. However, the company admitted that the fine could as high as $5 billion.

According to Reuters, the deal between Facebook and the FTC may include clauses for oversight of the activities of Facebook's board of directors relating to the implementation of privacy policies and practices. The new agreement is also expected to require Facebook to be more vigilant and aggressive in monitoring third-party app developers.

Facebook could announce its deal with FTC within the next month, according to Reuters.

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