
FTC and Facebook are negotiating a record fine for privacy lapses - tareqak
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/02/14/us-government-facebook-are-negotiating-record-multi-billion-dollar-fine-companys-privacy-lapses/
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simongr3dal
At the risk of being flippant: Why can’t I “negotiate” my fines (parking,
library fees, etc), why are these corporations afforded so much leeway?

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thwythwy
Well, they're settling out of court. If you go to court when you get two
traffic tickets for the same incident, sometimes you may get them reduced to
one ticket.

FB is negotiating a settlement wherein FB won't challenge the FTC's authority
and the FTC gets to divert its resources elsewhere. The FTC, being a small
agency with a dedicated but probably overworked staff tasked with routing out
all sorts of consumer fraud, works this stuff out in detailed settlement
agreements that are public called consent orders. Anytime the FTC goes to
court, and this will be true more and more with pro-biz judges gaining ground
in our current political era, the agency runs the risk of losing ground to
protect the public. So the negotiation makes sense. I'd hate to see something
like this happen if the negotiation breaks down:
[https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2018/06/appeals-
court-...](https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2018/06/appeals-court-curbs-
ftcs-enforcement-of-security-standards-labmd-v-ftc.htm)

On balance, maybe it is legit to be flippant here, ha.

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mtgx
Another "record" multi-million dollar fine?

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tareqak
Multibillion this time, but yes.

