San Francisco: Facebook and the US Federal Trade Commission are in talks to settle charges that it breaks users privacy when it changed default privacy settings to disclose more information than was prioviously, make wider public concern over the issue.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, Facebook will agree to independent privacy audits for 20 years under a proposed settlement with US regulators over changes to its privacy settings.
Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission are nearing a settlement over deceptive practices related to several Facebook features, including its privacy settings.
The Journal said the settlement stems from an investigation into charges made by privacy groups in December 2009 that Facebook engaged in deceptive behavior when changing its privacy settings.
The groups filed a complaint over changes to privacy settings which made aspects of a user’s profile – such as their name, picture, gender and list of friends – public by default, the newspaper said.
The settlement would require Facebook, which has more than 800 million members, to submit to independent privacy audits for 20 years, it said.
In the future, Facebook will also be required to obtain “express affirmative consent” from its users if it makes “material retroactive changes” to privacy settings, the Journal said.
In March, Google and the FTC agreed to 20 years of privacy audits and other measures after an investigation into deceptive privacy practices related to Buzz, its ill-fated social networking tool.
It was the first time the FTC had charged a company with such violations and imposed such regulations. Last year, after an FTC investigation into two security breaches, Twitter agreed to establish a privacy program.
For Facebook, which has said it has voluntarily made its privacy settings simpler in the past 18 months, the settlement is occurring as it tries to smooth the path toward an initial public offering.
But the FTC and Facebook refused to comment.
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