Mark Zuckerberg Violated Major Primary evidence Privacy

Zuckerberg to Congress: 'You should have complete control over your data'

Made 2018-04-10 00:00:00+00 · Audience · Congress

// The promise

“Across the board, we have a responsibility to not just build tools, but to make sure those tools are used for good. … You should have complete control over your data.”

Senate testimony transcript, 10 April 2018 ↗

// Why it matters

$5 billion

estimated public cost

⊕

87M people

affected

⚖

Legal outcome

$5 billion FTC settlement (July 2019); $725 million class-action settlement (December 2022)

Source & Methodology

Financial cost reflects the FTC fine (the largest ever imposed on a technology company at the time). People-affected figure is the confirmed count of Facebook users whose data was shared with Cambridge Analytica per the FTC complaint.

After the Cambridge Analytica scandal Zuckerberg told the US Senate that users would have 'complete control' over their data. The Federal Trade Commission subsequently fined Meta US$5 billion for ongoing privacy violations, and Meta's own filings concede continued regulatory action over the same data-handling practices.

// What actually happened (2 sourced violations)

#1 2019-07-24 00:00:00+00 470 days later primary evidence

FTC announces a US$5 billion penalty against Facebook for violating consumers' privacy — the largest such fine in history.

US Federal Trade Commission, 24 July 2019 ↗
#2 2023-05-22 00:00:00+00 1,868 days later primary evidence

EU Data Protection Commission fines Meta €1.2 billion for unlawful transfers of European users' personal data.

Irish Data Protection Commission, 22 May 2023 ↗

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