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Meta hit with $25B penalty for deceiving users about privacy on Facebook

200 points DeepLogin 2 hours ago 44 comments

ChrisArchitect 2 hours ago | parent

[dupe] Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50184820

ArcHound 2 hours ago | parent

This seems to be a consequence of the Cambridge Analytica. Could it be that we'll see some consequences?

ThouYS 54 minutes ago | parent

finally some proper penalty OOMs

hawk_ 52 minutes ago | parent

Stock seems to have shot up ~7% aftermarket so just cost of business.

minraws 46 minutes ago | parent

They beat revenue expectations, and earnings per share was ok, and they guided for even higher revenue next quarter above estimates ofc.

Somehow Meta is making money despite starting to loose DAUs now. So honestly I don't quite understand what's what, also most of the big income is from Ads and biggest Ads spenders are startups and companies heavily dependent on VCs and AI... So it's definitely somewhat circular, and Ads is the most recession affected business so a down turn in markets will cycle through it.

But ngl if all the earnings are this ok then hyperscalers stock might not crash this quarter, well then again I didn't think they would but a person could dream.

I am quite bullish on AI, but would prefer the fluff to get out of the way asap, otherwise don't want it to happen at a bad time, and too many people get caught pants down.

Forgeties79 44 minutes ago | parent

Hell didn’t they stop even reporting DAU’s?

minraws 1 minute ago | parent

they now do something called, Meta Family daily active people, similar thing but aggregate of all Meta stuff. very sus imho.

cush 5 minutes ago | parent

Their users are ad execs and data brokers

paxy 31 minutes ago | parent

Escaping litigation with a fine is always a good outcome, no matter how large the penalty. Stock price will drop the day governments start regulating these companies or breaking them up.

lrvick 29 minutes ago | parent

Well Meta is reacting to all the costs by just starting to charge for things previously free, like sharing links.

I suspect they are now entering the Earthlink/AOL phase where they squeeze every last dime out of the confused and abandoned senior citizens left on the platform until they die off.

kube-system 18 minutes ago | parent

Meta also owns the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 14th largest social media platforms behind facebook.

3.6 billion people use a Meta app every day - 43% of the world's population.

lrvick 9 minutes ago | parent

True. But seeing them lose an arm would be proof the monster can be killed.

kube-system 4 minutes ago | parent

I'm saying I don't think we'll see that. Yes, many people I know have left facebook but I think that's an artifact of me being in a bubble rather than it being a global trend.

hmokiguess 44 minutes ago | parent

Pay to play

giancarlostoro 44 minutes ago | parent

I remember long ago, you could fully hide your profile from ANY type of search. Now you cannot. I also remember long before they started scanning your face, they added an opt-out checkbox, I'm pretty sure this disappeared for a long time. You know that feature where they'd auto-suggest who to tag? Yea, you could bar them from using your face for that, now Facebook has taken a steaming pile of... on your privacy at levels I've never seen them pull before.

alex1138 22 minutes ago | parent

Yes, I remember an article in the Guardian about this, around 2015-6

Facebook does this. People think 'privacy' as a complaint and perhaps think about advertising on FB but straight up, settings get reset (including posts suddenly becoming Public. or graph search.)

Why? Because Mark Zuckerberg does not believe in it. In 2010 he said privacy was no longer a social norm. Not only does he himself not believe in it, but he can't keep it to himself. He knows 'better than you'. So, he outright changes it himself or instructs his engineers to do it

It's like with Free Basics in India. You could, theoretically, support it. Many didn't, it was a form of digital colonialism. But let's say you happened to think it was a good idea. It didn't matter either way: Facebook sent emails on users' behalf to TRAI

That's who Zuckerberg is. A sociopath, a criminal, someone who knows nothing but how to steal

jeanloolz 39 minutes ago | parent

25B is not a small fine. Finally an amount that should make them think twice their harming decisions

rvz 30 minutes ago | parent

They don't care.

Meta can take the hit by either selling stock, laying of more employees or both to cover that cost.

idlewords 28 minutes ago | parent

Or they can put thick mitts on Zuckerberg's hands for a couple of years so he can't sign any checks.

lrvick 39 minutes ago | parent

Who predicted it would be New Mexico defending the children of the US while seemingly every other state in the country is bought and paid for by pro surveillance capitalism lobbies?

Hopefully those corrupt politicians are paying attention to the NM model and realize they can get more money by beating all the cash out of Meta like a piñata and then regulate the entire industry like casinos and tobacco, with super high taxes and exclusive for really stupid consenting adults only.

vvpan 20 minutes ago | parent

I have no idea about judicial system in New Mexico, but it's a curious state - college is free effectively for everybody in the state, for example. Also school lunches are free. It's a rare combination of poor and blue.

akulbe 38 minutes ago | parent

That's just New Mexico. I wonder when will the other states step up, and hit them with more fines?

binarymax 37 minutes ago | parent

12% of annual revenue (~200M for 2025). Not a small amount.

afdbcreid 21 minutes ago | parent

You mean 200B?

rajman187 6 minutes ago | parent

meta makes $1.4B/week in net profit, so that's about 4 months of net profits

mentalgear 35 minutes ago | parent

A good start, yet still far from enough - as long as the punishments are not equal to their revenues generating by these illegal methods , big corporations will never stop exploiting society because to them those fines are just 'the cost of doing business'.

lrvick 26 minutes ago | parent

We need every state doing this, until it literally kills them. Then the companies left will have true fear for the first time ever, and may be forced to reform or suffer the same fate.

Make an example of Meta for the ages.

bilekas 26 minutes ago | parent

> as long as the punishments are not equal to their revenues generating by these illegal methods

I would say this qualifies no?

They certainly didn't get 25 Billion in fees from Cambridge analítica. Unless they did any my conception of business is just way off.

usefulcat 34 minutes ago | parent

Can they appeal it?

idlewords 29 minutes ago | parent

That penalty is almost 1/3 of a Metaverse. That's got to sting!

bilekas 28 minutes ago | parent

Holy! This might be the first time I've seen a meta fine that actually feels substantial enough for them to change behaviours. That's impressive.

DivingForGold 27 minutes ago | parent

That amount will likely be reduced upon appeal ...

Facebook IS a steaming pile of...

and Zuck is PUBLIC ENEMY #1

vvpan 12 minutes ago | parent

There is a whole gang of public enemies in Silicon Valley.

lrvick 7 minutes ago | parent

And I hope they are afraid, and having board meetings to try to self regulate a bit to try to avoid similar pain.

stillpointlab 25 minutes ago | parent

For those who haven't seen, the New Mexico Attorney General released tapes of the depositions for Zuckerberg [1] and Sandberg [2].

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7UC2ie0XIE

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1j4N-3ZkB4

Devasta 25 minutes ago | parent

Anything less than a jail cell is less than the top brass of Meta deserve.

MASNeo 19 minutes ago | parent

Will Meta be able to apeal?

j_horvat 17 minutes ago | parent

Sure, but where's the jail time for executives. This may be a bit more than the usual slap on the wrist, but its hardly consequence that actually matters to the likes of Meta. This will keep happening until those at the top are held personally responsible for the crimes they sign off on.

lrvick 11 minutes ago | parent

No one will bother making a move on the execs until the get-out-of-jail-free cards they bought from the current president are no longer valid.

cush 7 minutes ago | parent

If only software engineers were liable like real engineers are

vvpan 16 minutes ago | parent

I rarely cry but my eyes just got wet. It feels so good.

notfried 15 minutes ago | parent

Meta will surely appeal, and will likely get the fine reduced to like 10% of that. But for comparison, in the recent multistate settlement over social media addiction by 47 states for $17 billion, there was a provision in that settlement to get $459 million [1] in exchange for releasing Meta from any state claims related to Cambridge Analytica. So those 47 states got $459 million for what New Mexico will likely get a few billion for.

[1] https://www.techpolicy.press/the-459-million-cambridge-analy...

paxy 11 minutes ago | parent

It’s hilarious that one of the outcomes of Meta cozying up with the current administration to escape scrutiny at the Federal level has been 50+ state attorneys general prosecuting them instead.

SecretDreams 10 minutes ago | parent

Honestly, this company is uninvestable if you have even a shred of morality.. but, even if you lack morality, you must see the writing on the wall re: their lingering risks.

Meta is the cigarette company of the modern era and or historians are allowed to write a neutral take on this era, they will likely not be kind to meta.

25 bil is no where near enough for privacy damages, let alone what they'll have to deal with on the addiction damages down the road.