FTC Approves Roughly $5 Bln Facebook Settlement: WSJ

(RTTNews) - The Federal Trade Commission has approved a roughly $5 billion settlement with Facebook Inc. (FB) over a probe into the tech giant's privacy missteps, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report specified that the settlement is expected to tighten government restrictions on how Facebook treats user privacy.

FTC commissioners this past week voted 3-2 in favor of the agreement, with the Republican majority backing the pact while Democratic commissioners objected, the report said.

The matter has been moved to the Justice Department's civil division and it is unclear how long it will take to finalize, the report added.

An FTC spokeswoman declined to comment, as did a Facebook spokesman.

"A 3-2 vote along party lines is definitely not ideal for an FTC settlement of this magnitude," Ashkan Soltani, a former chief technologist at the FTC, wrote on Twitter Friday.