Facebook Worried About Mark Zuckerberg’s Old Emails in FTC Privacy Probe

Employees within Facebook have dug up “ emails that appear to get in touch Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to potentially problematic secrecy practices ” in the course of responding to a Federal Trade Commission investigating , theWall Street Journal reportedon Wednesday , citing “ people intimate with the matter . ”

The Journal was not able to review the emails directly , but write they could complicate efforts at Facebook to chop-chop reach a settlement with the FTC over aver misdemeanor of a 2012 agreement known as a consent decree . That concord resolved charge that Facebook “ deceive consumer by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private , and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public,”according to the FTC . To avoid penalty , the authority required the party agree to obtain “ show consent before share [ users ’ ] information beyond their privacy mise en scene ” as well as go through a “ comprehensive privateness program to protect consumers ’ selective information . ”

At least one of the electronic mail chains from April 2012 ( after the rescript was declare but before it went into effect ) appears to show Facebook and Zuckerberg “ grappling ” with what type of exercise it should permit under the order , namely a third party table service that claim to be offering memory access to user profiles no matter what privacy setting they had enabled . The Journal wrote :

Photo: Francois Mori (AP)

In one electronic mail exchange from April 2012 that has catch regulator ’ attention , according to a person familiar with the matter , Mr. Zuckerberg ask employee about an app that claim to have built a database stocked with selective information about tens of millions of Facebook drug user . The developer had the ability to display that substance abuser information to others on its own site , disregardless of those users ’ privacy configurations on Facebook , the person said .

agree to the Journal ( paraphrased ) , Zuckerberg replied ask “ if such broad data collection was possible ” and whether Facebook should do something about it . A staff member responded in the approbative to the first question , sum that it was mutual exercise , but that it was a “ complicated issue . ” Facebook later suspended the specific app , but did not do much to change its program in response ; similar issuesblew up in the society ’s faceover the course of the past year as privacy scandals including the sprawl Cambridge Analytica mountain were revealed .

Facebook faculty have also expressed concern that the content of the emails could damage the society ’s report and make it look like Zuckerberg does n’t care about concealment ( duh ! ) , the Journal lend . It ’s indecipherable whether extra emails are ask .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

“ We have amply cooperated with the FTC ’s probe to date and provided tenner of thousands of documents , electronic mail and files . We are continuing to work with them and desire to bring this matter to an appropriate solvent , ” a Facebook spokesperson secernate the paper . “ … At no point did Mark or any other Facebook employee knowingly despoil the company ’s responsibility under the FTC consent order nor do any electronic mail exist that indicate they did . ”

Reports have indicate that Facebook expect to pay up to arecord - setting $ 5 billionin a colony with the FTC , but the agency is still mulling name Zuckerberg as a responder in its official ailment — something that could make the chief executive officer personally apt for any succeeding violation and would likely advertize Facebook into fighting the FTC in court , according to the Journal . But such a royal court battle would risk sensitive Facebook document such as the said electronic mail going public .

[ Wall Street Journal ]

William Duplessie