FTC Approves Facebook Privacy Settlement Reached Last November

As was widely expected, the Federal Trade Commission has given final approval to the privacy settlement it reached with Facebook last year.

The agreement — unlike the $22.5 million agreement with Google announced yesterday — doesn’t call for any monetary penalty. It does, however, require Facebook to undergo privacy audits from an independent third party every two years for 20 years. Additionally, the company says it will now give consumers “clear and prominent” notice of its privacy practices, obtaining “express consent” before sharing their information beyond the limits to which were originally agreed.

The lone and vocal commission dissenter on the agreement was Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch, who objected to the fact that Facebook wasn’t required to admit to deceptive privacy practices as part of the agreement. He also expressed concern that the agreement didn’t sufficiently address the entire “Facebook environment” — as the privacy practices of Facebook apps weren’t specifically mentioned.

The settlement stems from an investigation launched after Facebook changed its privacy settings in 2009, allowing certain information to be shared when users had previously declared a desire to keep it private. The agreement with the FTC notably didn’t require Facebook to revert to pre-2009 privacy settings, as consumer watchdog groups like theElectronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the World Privacy Forum had recommended.

About The Author

Pamela Parker

Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.