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Comment by colejohnson66 | Hacker News Reader

> If the FTC finds Facebook violated terms of the consent decree, it has the power to fine the company thousands of dollars a day per violation.

Maybe I'm misreading this, but only a few thousand?

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Yeah, this struck me too. It seems like the FTC's powers are far too light to deal with modern tech.

I'd really like to see something like the NTSB here, but for privacy/security issues. After an incident, the NTSB comes in, investigates everything, and produces a very detailed report as to what happened and what the industry should be doing differently. You can see their recent reports here: https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/Ac...

It's very clear from Facebook's behavior since the elections that they can't be trusted to investigate and report on themselves. E.g., this article on how their execs thought it best not to say anything until forced by circumstances: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/facebook-alex-...

European fines are much stiffer.

https://www.gdpreu.org/compliance/fines-and-penalties/

If each person is considered a separate violation then $1000/day adds up quickly.

Works out to $2 trillion in liability according to one (highly speculative) article I saw.

Where can I get my check? Or will the government spend it in my best interest?

Almost certainly the latter. Although it would be whimsical to consider for a moment people retiring from Facebook’s misfortunes.

I've been saying for awhile if people were just payed fairly for the data all these companies were tricking them into giving away it would amount to a basic income of a couple thousand dollars a year.

It basically requires collective action though. If everyone does it at once they will start paying your bills to track you.

If people were paid fairly for this data then these companies wouldn't exist. I'm not saying this is good or bad, but you'd turn around and be charged to use the service.

Interesting side question, how do you see market forces working to set a proper payment for data to users? Right now Facebook is essentially saying your data is worth free photos and being advertised and propogandized and people seem to accept that. How does this not become the standard of exchange in your system for any popular network effect service?

>"Right now Facebook is essentially saying your data is worth free photos and being advertised and propogandized and people seem to accept that. How does this not become the standard of exchange in your system for any popular network effect service?"

The point would be that people started valuing their data "correctly". I don't know how high that is but it must be worth much more than free web hosting or else these companies wouldn't have gotten so huge.

Wow, how much money do you think facebook makes. They have 114$/person in the US revenue.

And that's taking all the global revenue into account.

Facebook is only one company. Start with the FANG companies, then banks + "partners", ISPs, etc.

Fear not citizen, it'll be put to use by the same government that's actively working to dismantle consumer protections.

That's a neat way to nationalize FB.

Is it. Because if it is immoral for facebook to sell data for electoral campaigns, what does it mean for the president to get all that data legally and at tax payer money.

I did not make claims whether nationalizing FB is neat or not. Just that if you want to nationalize a company, setting fines that make the company immediately insolvent and government by far largest creditor is quite a neat way to do it.

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