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The $5bn fine for Facebook by The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — assuming it is approved by the Department of Justice — is both eye-catching and sets a new record. The fine follows an investigation which began last March, triggered by the Cambridge Analytica case in which personal information was leaked to a political consultancy through a third party. Using fines to encourage better privacy protection is a questionable strategy. If they become seen as the cost of carrying on with business as usual, the FTC will be undermined. The banking sector ’ s treatment after the financial crisis does not give cause for hope. As with Facebook, regulators there failed to act until the damage was plain to see. Faced with overwhelming public pressure, they hurriedly applied hefty financial penalties to make up for it. Over a decade on from the global financial crisis, many of the fundamental ways in which banks operate remain worryingly unchanged. Over the past five years the utopianism that initially prevailed around the digital economy has been replaced by a “ techlash ” . Digital groups have transformed the way companies work and offered more choice for consumers. But the focus now is on getting tech companies to change their structure and behaviour, rather than price fines into their business models.