[alopecoid]

For a subset of users, Facebook leaked "page likes, birthday, and current city".

Meanwhile, Equifax leaked the social security numbers of more than 145 million Americans, 200 thousand credit card numbers with expiration dates, and more than 175 thousand combined driver's licenses, tax/military ID cards, and passports.

In fact, Equifax has a long history of incompetence in this regard. http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Equifax#Security_failings

Where's the big fine for Equifax? http://reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1JN2YH

...Or the countless others who leaked much more sensitive data (medical records, for example) and at greater scale? http://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_data_breaches

Politicians and media have made Facebook a scapegoat to push their agendas, while others get away without consequence. The "embarrassing joke" is that the public buys into it.

[o10449366]

I would say the media is just as culpable here given how much influence they have on public opinion in America (and I would garner that's where most politicians get their information.) FB directly competes with most media publications for attention and content so they have a direct profit motive to target FB. The ironic part is that all the reporting is done under the guise of protecting or informing public privacy, but media publications continue to be amongst the worst offenders when it comes to user tracking and privacy violations. Of course, they'll never report on how they sell out your address, email, phone number, political views, etc. if you subscribe to their magazine because heaven forbid they hold themselves to some higher standard.

[ineedasername]

Regarding comparison to Equifax, I think it may not be equitable, which isn't to say that Facebook doesn't deserve the fine. I think they do. But Equifax does too. Facebook shouldn't forgo their fine because someone else got of lightly.