Facebook to pay $5 billion for violating 2012 FTC consent order

Just two days after the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced a historic settlement of privacy and security claims against Equifax, the FTC today announced that Facebook has agreed to pay $5 billion in civil fines, arising from its violation of a 2012 consent order with the FTC.  According to the FTC, this is the largest fine ever levied by a U.S. regulatory agency against a company for a privacy or data security violation by a factor of 20—and one of the largest penalties ever assessed by the U.S. government.