Facebook Settles FTC Privacy Investigation, Will Make Future Privacy Changes Opt-In

Online companies may be playing fast and loose with user privacy, but it seems that this may finally be coming to an end. The US Federal Trade Commission is said to be close to reaching a settlement with Facebook which would have the social network amend some of its user privacy practices and also submit to audits from the FTC for the next 20 years.

Under the settlement, which has not been confirmed officially, but which has been reported on by several publications with independent sources, Facebook would have to make all future changes to privacy settings opt-in if the changes make some data more public than it had been at that point, i.e. retroactive changes.

This means that info that a user has provided with the knowledge that it will be visible to only a few people won't suddenly become available to everyone.

This may seem like an obvious requirement, but Facebook's past actions have affected data in this way. Now, Facebook will have to ask permission to make the info more public.

That said, the settlement does not affect future features and Facebook will not have to ask permission from users to roll out new features and sharing options.

To make sure Facebook keeps its end of the bargain, it will submit to regular privacy audits for the next 20 years. Google similarly agreed to privacy audits for 20 years after mishaps with Google Buzz, its ill-fated social network that it has since been shut down.

The FTC investigation started when Facebook made one of its many changes to privacy options, in December 2009. It claimed at the time that the changes simplified the privacy settings interface, but they also made some info, such as gender, profile photos, location, friend list and so on public where as users could previously had made it private.

It later relented and reverted some of the changes, but the outcry from the move prompted the FTC to investigate. The conclusion of the investigation is the settlement that the two sides are expected to reveal soon.