Privacy advocates move FTC against Facebook

WASHINGTON, USA: The row over Facebook’s recent changes to its privacy settings intensified on Thursday, as the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and other groups complained to the US government, asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to open an investigation into the social networking company.

When Facebook, the world's No.1 Internet social network, had introduced last week a broad revision of its users' privacy settings, it had invited criticisms from privacy advocates who claimed the changes were pushing Facebook's 350 million-plus users to expose more of their personal information. The complaint further adds momentum to that criticism.

The new changes encourage people to make information more widely available and easier to search. Previously, the system encouraged users to make information available only to their friends and people in the same networks.

“Facebook’s changes to users’ privacy settings disclose personal information to the public that was previously restricted disclose personal information to third parties that was previously not available. These changes violate user expectations, diminish user privacy, and contradict Facebook’s own representations,” said the EPIC complaint co-signed by nine other privacy groups.

However, Facebook defended the changes. “We’ve had productive discussions with dozens of organizations around the world about the recent changes and we’re disappointed that EPIC has chosen to share their concerns with the FTC while refusing to talk to us about them,” Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in a statement. “We discussed the privacy programme with many regulators, including the FTC, prior to launch and expect to continue to work with them in the future.”

According to a Guardian report, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg appeared to be a victim of the site's new privacy settings. The changes enabled everyone to look through his photo albums and Valleywag, now part of the Gawker blog, published "some of the more interesting shots". In the UK, the Daily Mail published a picture of Zuckerberg cuddling his teddy bear.

So, do you think Facebook will be compelled to change the privacy settings to retain its users?