The regulatory pressure on Facebook rose another notch¹ yesterday as the US Federal Trade Commission confirmed it had opened an investigation² into the company’s privacy practices after the scandal in which the data of 50m users was misused³.

监管部门昨日对Facebook加大压力。美国联邦贸易委员会(Federal Trade Commission，简称FTC)证实，其已对该公司的隐私保护实践展开调查，此前爆发的丑闻显示5000万用户的数据遭到不当利用。

Tom Pahl, acting⁴ director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said it took “very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook” and warned the agency would take action against companies “that fail to honour their privacy promises”. The investigation could result in fines for Facebook, which signed a consent order in 2011 with the FTC that required it to be clear with users about how their data were being shared with third parties.

联邦贸易委员会消费者保护局(Bureau of Consumer Protection)代理局长汤姆.帕尔(Tom Pahl)表示，该局“严肃对待近期相关新闻报道，这些报道引发了对Facebook隐私保护实践的严重关切”，并警告称，该局将对“那些未能履行其隐私保护承诺的公司”采取行动。这项调查可能导致Facebook面临罚款。该公司曾于2011年与联邦贸易委员会签署同意令，该同意令要求Facebook明确告知用户：他们的数据正如何被与第三方分享。

If the company is found to have broken the order, it could face fines of up to $40,000 per violation⁵ per day. David Vladeck, a former FTC director who oversaw⁶ the agreement in 2011, has said each affected⁷ user could be counted as an individual violation.

如果被发现违反这一同意令，该公司的每项违规操作可能面临每天高达4万美元的罚款。曾在2011年负责与Facebook达成协议的联邦贸易委员会前主任戴维.弗拉德克(David Vladeck)表示，每位受影响的用户可以被算作一项单独的违规行为。

Facebook shares dropped as much as 6.1 per cent yesterday, leaving the company 22 per cent below its record high of $193.09 on February 1. Facebook has re-issued a statement made last week by Rob Sherman, its deputy privacy officer, which said: “We remain strongly committed to protecting people’s information. We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have.”

Facebook股价昨日盘中曾下跌6.1%，已从2月1日创出的193.09美元的历史高点累计下跌22%。Facebook重新发布了其副首席隐私官罗布.谢尔曼(Rob Sherman)上周所作的声明： “我们仍然坚定致力于保护人们的信息。我们感激有机会回答联邦贸易委员会可能提出的问题”。

The FTC’s investigation is just one of several probes into Facebook following revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a marketing⁸ firm used by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, improperly⁹ harvested data on 50m Facebook users.

联邦贸易委员会的调查只是针对Facebook展开的几项调查之一，之前媒体爆料称，唐纳德.特朗普(Donald Trump)总统竞选团队聘用的营销公司剑桥分析(Cambridge Analytica)以不当方式采集5000万Facebook用户数据。

Politicians in the US and Europe have called on Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder¹⁰, to testify about the scandal, while 37 US attorneys-general have demanded answers from Facebook.

美国和欧洲的政界人士已经要求Facebook创始人马克.扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)就这起丑闻作证，与此同时美国37名总检察长要求Facebook提供答案。

Katarina Barley¹¹, the German justice minister, warned yesterday that Facebook and other internet companies needed closer supervision¹². Speaking after a meeting with senior European Facebook managers, Ms Barley said the events surrounding Cambridge Analytica were “intolerable”.

德国司法部长卡塔琳娜.巴利(Katarina Barley)昨日警告，需要对Facebook和其他互联网公司进行更加严密的监督。巴利在与Facebook的欧洲高管们开会后表示，围绕剑桥分析的相关事件“令人无法容忍”。