Facebook and FTC have reached a settlement, and its stock price has hit a recent high

According to foreign media reports, Facebook and the FTC have reached a settlement over Facebook's improper handling of user personal information. The FTC approved a fine of approximately $5 billion on Facebook on Friday, which will be the highest fine ever imposed by the U.S. federal government on a technology company.

The FTC began investigating Facebook in March last year over allegations that it improperly obtained and shared information about 87 million users with the now-bankrupt British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. The FTC's investigation focused on whether the data sharing violated a 2011 agreement between Facebook and regulators.

Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Trump in the 2016 US election, has shut down all operations and has initiated bankruptcy proceedings in the UK. Cambridge Analytica has always denied any wrongdoing.

The Cambridge Analytica incident stems from a personality quiz app offered to Facebook users by researchers at the University of Cambridge. Approximately 270,000 users downloaded the app, allowing the researchers to access data about those people and their friends, which was then sold to Cambridge Analytica.

The FTC and Facebook declined to comment.

In 2018, Facebook's revenue was nearly $56 billion. The fine paid in this settlement with the FTC accounted for about one-tenth of its total revenue. However, after the news was announced, Facebook's stock price rose instead of falling, reaching its highest point since last year.