San Francisco (AFP)
The record fine imposed last summer by the US consumer protection agency, the FTC, on Facebook for failing to protect the personal data of its users, was validated on Thursday by a judge.
A decision qualified Friday "historic" by the president of this agency, Joe Simons.
The FTC accused the most powerful social network in the world of "cheating" its users on their ability to control their personal information.
In addition to the fine, she had forced the Silicon Valley company to set up an independent privacy committee.
The social network also had to commit to adding features allowing users to better control their privacy at all levels of the platform, and to provide regular reports on the risks, problems and solutions implemented to ensure confidentiality of information.
It was after the outbreak in March 2018 of the scandal of data leaks to the British firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for the Donald Trump campaign in 2016 and hijacked the personal data of tens of millions of users around the world, that the FTC had opened an investigation.
Some privacy advocates objected to the agency's Facebook agreement, saying it did not sufficiently punish the group.
The social network for its part said that the agreement went beyond the legislation.
It should serve "as the basis for all privacy regulations," in the United States as elsewhere, said Facebook privacy chief Michel Protti in a blog post.
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