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With FTC Settlement, Expect Facebook to Violate Privacy Again and Again
Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
WASHINGTON
Note: Today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released the details of its settlement with Facebook.
Facebook repeatedly violated its privacy policy. In 2011, it entered into a consent decree in which it promised not to violate its privacy policy again. But it did - over and over again.
At the end of the day, the FTC's settlement amounts to Facebook remaking the promise to adhere to its own privacy policy, while reserving the right to change that policy at any time. Facebook users and the public should take no comfort in that.
In light of the company's extraordinary record of privacy violations and its unparalleled reach across the globe and into users' minds, elaborate procedural mechanisms that aim to ensure "compliance" are not going to do the trick.
Protecting Facebook users' privacy requires structural change, substantive policies and impositions of liability to end Facebook's improper and unprecedented corporate surveillance system.
The FTC settlement fails to deliver on those measures. It enables Facebook to escape genuine accountability for what it has done and leaves it likely that the company will betray its users yet again.
Structural change: Facebook has announced plans for two major shifts that pose massive risks to user privacy. The first is the integration of Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. The second is the launch of its new global, private currency, Libra. In light of Facebook's atrocious privacy record, the FTC should have demanded it drop these two plans, each of which pose novel and unprecedented threats to consumers' privacy.
Substantive policies: The bulk of the FTC settlement relies on elaborate processes to ensure Facebook complies with its own privacy policies. Based on Facebook's record, and the general limitations of corporate "compliance" systems, there is every reason to be skeptical that this will make a difference. But even if Facebook "complies," it is free to change its privacy policies unilaterally and at any time.
By contrast, the settlement does contain certain substantive requirements to protect user passwords. Other substantive provisions are, by and large, missing.
Commissioner Rohit Chopra explains that Facebook's reliance on behavioral advertising--targeted advertising based on specific information about individual users' actions - incentivizes Facebook to violate users' privacy interests. In light of Facebook's record of repeated privacy violations, the FTC settlement should have required an end to Facebook's behavioral advertising system. The company would still be able to sell advertising in targeted ways - but it would not have the incentive to track every users' click, every indication of their interests, thoughts, fantasies and proclivities.
Liability: The $5 billion fine imposed on Facebook is a large sum. But it is one readily absorbed by Facebook and not sufficient to deter the company from future wrongdoing. Equally important, it does not plainly disgorge from Facebook the ill-gotten gains resulting from its violations of its privacy policy and the 2011 consent decree.
As a company still led by its founder, who remains its largest shareholder, power at Facebook is concentrated in ways that are categorically different than other large, publicly traded corporations. Getting Facebook's attention should have required an imposition of personal liability on Mark Zuckerberg - not just to make him liable in the future for improper certifications, but as part of this settlement.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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"No work, no school, no shopping. We're going to show up and say we're putting workers over billionaires and kings."
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Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, said on Saturday that a nationwide general strike is being planned for May 1 that will be modeled on the day of action residents of Minnesota organized in January against the brutality carried out by federal immigration enforcement officials.
Appearing at the flagship No Kings rally in Minneapolis, Levin praised the strength shown by the Minnesota protesters in the face of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) siege of their city this year, and said his organization wanted to replicate it across the country.
"The next major national action of this movement is not just going to be another protest," Levin said. "It is a tactical escalation... It is an economic show of force, inspired by Minnesota's own day of truth and action."
Levin then outlined what the event would entail.
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Levin: This is the largest protest in Minnesota history… The next major national action of this movement is not just gonna be another protest. On May 1st, across the country, we are saying no business as usual. No work, no school, no shopping. We're gonna show up and say we're… pic.twitter.com/bRPR7K5DuP
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 28, 2026
Levin added that "we are going to build on that courage, that sacrifice" that Minnesota residents showed during their day of action in January, and vowed "to demonstrate that regular people are the greatest threat to fascism in this country."
In an interview with Payday Report published Saturday, Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg said that the goal of the nationwide strike action would be to send "a clear message: we demand a government that invests in our communities, not one that enriches billionaires, fuels endless war, or deploys masked agents to intimidate our neighbors.”
The No Kings protests against President Donald Trump's authoritarian government, which Indivisible has been central in organizing, have brought millions of Americans into the streets.
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The Houthis on Saturday took credit for launching a ballistic missile at Israel, opening a new front in the war US President Donald Trump illegally started with Iran nearly one month ago.
As reported by Axios, the attack by the Houthis signals that the Yemen-based militia is joining the conflict to aide Iran, which has been under aerial assault from the US and Israel for the past four weeks.
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Sky News international correspondent John Sparks reported on Saturday that the Houthis' entrance into the war shows that "this crisis is expanding, it is escalating."
'This crisis is expanding and escalating.'
Houthi rebels in Yemen have confirmed they launched a missile at Israel, marking the Iran-backed group's first involvement in the war.
@sparkomat reports live from Jerusalem
https://t.co/Leuc4SnGfG
📺 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/TmlyFHkCZN
— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 28, 2026
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Mar 28, 2026
Soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces on Friday were caught on camera assaulting and detaining a crew of CNN journalists while they were reporting from the occupied West Bank.
A video of the incident posted on social media by CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond shows the CNN crew walking near the Palestinian village of Tayasir, which in recent days has come under assault from Israeli settlers who established an illegal outpost in the area.
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A soldier then puts CNN photojournalist Cyril Theophilos in a chokehold and forces him to the ground. Writing about the assault later, Theophilos said that the soldier "pushed and strangled me," adding that this kind of violence "is just a symptom of the IDF's actions in the West Bank."
According to Diamond, the CNN crew were subsequently detained for two hours. During that time, Diamond wrote, it became clear that the ideology of the Israeli settlers movement was "motivating many of the soldiers who operate in the occupied West Bank" and that the Israeli military regularly acts "in service of the settler movement."
For instance, one IDF soldier acknowledged during conversations with the CNN crew that the settler outpost near Tayasir was unlawful under both international and Israeli law, but insisted "this will be a legal settlement... slowly, slowly."
The soldier also said he wanted to exact "revenge" on local Palestinians for the death of 18-year-old Israeli settler Yehuda Sherman, who was killed last week by a Palestinian driver. Palestinians who witnessed Sherman's killing have said that the driver was trying to stop Sherman from stealing sheep.
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