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Facebook Settles with FTC

David Correll on November 30, 2011 | Facebook | Comments (0)

Facebook has today settled a dispute with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Facebook made a number of ‘privacy mistakes’ with its users such as:

In December 2009 making your Friends list public without approval or warning.
3rd Party Facebook Applications were getting a lot more user data that specified on the site.
Facebook has ‘verified apps’ and claimed these apps has high security. This was false.
Facebook shared user information to advertisers when it shouldn’t have.
If someone deleted their account, much of the content was still available to other users.

As a result of the FTC hearing, Facebook now has to comply on the following points:

No misrepresentations about privacy of user data
Have to get users consent before making changes to their data
Stop content of deleted profiles showing after 30 days of account closure
For the next 20 years accept privacy audits from the FTC

Google Buzz has similar restrictions imposed on their site after they made some severe privacy blunders launching their social network.

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David Correll : Editor and Founder of SocialMediaNews.com.au. I also run a Social Media Agency where I do consulting work and Social Media Management. Connect with me: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook or contact me here. Alternatively, you can send me an email at david@socialmedianews.com.au