Facebook Is Said to be near F.T.C. Settlement on Privacy
SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission are nearing a settlement over fraudulent practices in connection with multiple Facebook features, including their privacy settings informed by two people on the settlement, who spoke anonymously because FTC have commissioners have not approved the comparison .
Under the agreement, Facebook would agree to privacy audits for 20 years, said one of the people. It would make for a ban on Facebook in public a piece of information that a user had originally privately shared on the Site without the express permission, the person said.
But Facebook would not be necessary to ask users whether they want to participate in all the sharing features on the site, including future tools that it builds.
A Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes, and FTC Spokeswoman Claudia Farrell, declined to comment.
The settlement is part of a broader push the FTC to protect consumer privacy online.
In March, Google and the F.T.C. agreed, 20 years of data protection audits and other measures after an investigation into deceptive privacy practices in connection with Buzz, his ill-fated social networking tool. It was the first time the F.T.C. Had charged a company with such violations and imposed such regulations. Last year, after a F.T.C. Investigation into two vulnerabilities, agreed Twitter, a privacy program.
For Facebook, which said it voluntarily made its privacy settings easier to have in the past 18 months, the settlement comes as it tries to smooth the way for an IPO.
"This is part of the balancing act has Facebook done," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "It must also satisfy the privacy complaints in the United States and Europe prior to the IPO"
But Mr. Chester expressed doubt that the settlement would appease critics of the Facebook data-collection practices.
"The real test of the FTC's Facebook deal will be whether the user does not have control over their own information, or if this is a tiny digital bump on the road, which is nothing to derail Mark Zuckerberg insatiable appetite to devour our data effectively," he said.
Facebook is under fire from its users, privacy experts and politicians for the signature block for people new features on the site, instead of asking, they come first.
For a year and a half, the F.T.C. Facebook has been pushing to provide granular privacy controls, so that people can choose to share or to certain parts of the private information they publish on the site, according to a person in the talks would only speak anonymously involved.
Facebook has since added new tools, such as one for sharing with small groups of friends on Facebook and one to change the privacy settings for specific information on the website, the most important pages, rather than on a separate page settings.
The settlement addresses several complaints that the FTC has received from organizations like the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
It focuses on privacy changes that Facebook made in December 2009. Although the company said then that the new settings, the settings would simplify that Facebook users found confusing, they are automatically a host of information that had previously been private, exposed, including profile photos, sex, friends lists, and current city. Facebook also removed the ability to opt out of some features.
After a public outcry, Facebook May 2010, the amount of information that users are required to stock companies, and restored the ability to opt out of certain tools.
The settlement also deals with other Facebook features, the FTC said were deceptive, including a program for the grant applications from outside the Facebook programmers label, which ended in December 2009, one of the people said.
Several people informed on the settlement, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, said it would not be completed in the next few days.
Facebook also the privacy investigations in Europe, including one introduced in Hamburg on its photo recognition tool, in the last year, which identifies and proposes tag friends in photos.
In a statement Thursday, said Johannes Caspar, the Hamburg data protection officer, that the negotiations with Facebook had in vain, and that he intended to take legal action.
Under the agreement, Facebook would agree to privacy audits for 20 years, said one of the people. It would make for a ban on Facebook in public a piece of information that a user had originally privately shared on the Site without the express permission, the person said.
But Facebook would not be necessary to ask users whether they want to participate in all the sharing features on the site, including future tools that it builds.
A Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes, and FTC Spokeswoman Claudia Farrell, declined to comment.
The settlement is part of a broader push the FTC to protect consumer privacy online.
In March, Google and the F.T.C. agreed, 20 years of data protection audits and other measures after an investigation into deceptive privacy practices in connection with Buzz, his ill-fated social networking tool. It was the first time the F.T.C. Had charged a company with such violations and imposed such regulations. Last year, after a F.T.C. Investigation into two vulnerabilities, agreed Twitter, a privacy program.
For Facebook, which said it voluntarily made its privacy settings easier to have in the past 18 months, the settlement comes as it tries to smooth the way for an IPO.
"This is part of the balancing act has Facebook done," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "It must also satisfy the privacy complaints in the United States and Europe prior to the IPO"
But Mr. Chester expressed doubt that the settlement would appease critics of the Facebook data-collection practices.
"The real test of the FTC's Facebook deal will be whether the user does not have control over their own information, or if this is a tiny digital bump on the road, which is nothing to derail Mark Zuckerberg insatiable appetite to devour our data effectively," he said.
Facebook is under fire from its users, privacy experts and politicians for the signature block for people new features on the site, instead of asking, they come first.
For a year and a half, the F.T.C. Facebook has been pushing to provide granular privacy controls, so that people can choose to share or to certain parts of the private information they publish on the site, according to a person in the talks would only speak anonymously involved.
Facebook has since added new tools, such as one for sharing with small groups of friends on Facebook and one to change the privacy settings for specific information on the website, the most important pages, rather than on a separate page settings.
The settlement addresses several complaints that the FTC has received from organizations like the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
It focuses on privacy changes that Facebook made in December 2009. Although the company said then that the new settings, the settings would simplify that Facebook users found confusing, they are automatically a host of information that had previously been private, exposed, including profile photos, sex, friends lists, and current city. Facebook also removed the ability to opt out of some features.
After a public outcry, Facebook May 2010, the amount of information that users are required to stock companies, and restored the ability to opt out of certain tools.
The settlement also deals with other Facebook features, the FTC said were deceptive, including a program for the grant applications from outside the Facebook programmers label, which ended in December 2009, one of the people said.
Several people informed on the settlement, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, said it would not be completed in the next few days.
Facebook also the privacy investigations in Europe, including one introduced in Hamburg on its photo recognition tool, in the last year, which identifies and proposes tag friends in photos.
In a statement Thursday, said Johannes Caspar, the Hamburg data protection officer, that the negotiations with Facebook had in vain, and that he intended to take legal action.