The social media company agreed to pay $150 million as part of a settlement with regulators over allegations that it misrepresented the security and privacy of user data.
The Department of Justice and the FTC said that between May and September of this year, the social media company used personal information to target users with ads.
Under the FTC Act, the agency is able to prevent unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce. The order made it illegal to make misrepresentations about the information that is collected from users.
The penalty has been in the works for a couple years. In August 2020 it was warned that it was facing an FTC probe and could be fined more than a hundred million dollars for violating the FTC Act again.
The complaint was filed because of the fact that the company didn't tell users that it also used their contact information to help advertisers.
The complaint said that users gave email addresses or telephone numbers based on deceptive statements and that this information would be used for account security.
The practice affected more than 140 million users and boosted the revenue of the company, according to the FTC Chair.
The agreement requires the improvement of its compliance practices.
A request for comment was not immediately responded to.
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