Facebook expects privacy fine of $3 to $5 billion from FTC

Facebook has set aside $3 billion because it expects to face a hefty fine from the US Federal Trade Commission. The social network is still negotiating a settlement with the watchdog, but expects to pay three to five billion dollars.

That Facebook expects such a fine is apparent from the company’s quarterly figures. It states that the company has set aside three billion dollars because of the investigation that the FTC is conducting into the handling of user data. A specific case is not mentioned, but it probably concerns the Cambridge Anaytica scandal.

After it emerged in 2018 that Cambridge was able to use data from millions of Facebook users for political purposes, the FTC opened an investigation. Facebook and the American agency would negotiate a settlement and that therefore seems to be in the amount of billions. Facebook must pay that amount if the FTC concludes that the social network has broken promises about user privacy. Negotiations between Facebook and the market watchdog are still underway, according to the quarterly figures. According to Facebook, it is not yet clear when the fine will come.

Furthermore, Facebook announces in its quarterly figures that the number of daily active users has increased. In March there were 1.56 billion, an increase of 8 percent compared to the same month a year earlier. The number of monthly active users also increased by 8 percent, to 2.38 billion.

Advertising revenue is by far Facebook’s largest source of income. The share of mobile advertising in this continues to increase. That is now 93 percent, compared to 91 percent a year ago.

Quarterly revenue was $15.1 billion, up 26 percent from the same quarter last year. The quarterly profit is 2.4 billion dollars, half less than last year. That decrease is due to the amount that Facebook has set aside for the fine.