Facebook's privacy practices are under investigation, FTC confirms

Facebook's privacy practices are under investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission following a week of scandals and public outrage over the company's failure to protect the personal information of tens of millions of users. "The FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook," said Tom Pahl, acting director of the FTC's bureau of consumer protection in a statement on Monday noting that the investigation would include whether the company engaged in "unfair acts that cause substantial injury to consumers". Facebook's stock, which already took a big hit last week, slid as a result falling by as much as 6% at one point. "We remain strongly committed to protecting people's information," Facebook's deputy chief privacy officer, Rob Sherman, said in a statement. "We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have." Facebook's privacy practices have come under fire after revelations in the Observer that Cambridge Analytica got data on Facebook users, including information on friends of people who had downloaded a psychological quiz app, even though those friends had not given explicit consent to sharing.