Facebook Profits Soar Despite Growing Data-Privacy Concerns

BY JOE KELLY

The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook earned a record profit in its fourth quarter of 2018.

Despite a difficult year of privacy issues, Facebook's stock increased by 12 percent while their revenue increased by 30 percent according to the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times said that these results indicate that advertisers continued placing ads on the site and that users were not deterred by privacy concerns.

Mr. Zuckerberg told news outlets that the company's focus is beginning to shift from privacy security to innovation.

However, when users were angered by Facebook's research practices, in which they paid particpants $20 to install apps that kept track of personal data, they still used Facebook without any change of activity, according to the Wall Street Journal.