Facebook is on the verge of finalising a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over changes to its privacy policies enacted two years ago, it was reported.
If the settlement is approved by FTC commissioners, it would require Facebook to get unequivocal consent from its 800 million users before resorting to change its privacy settings.
The settlement was necessitated by when a group of privacy advocacy organisations complained to the FTC against Facebook after it introduced new privacy settings in 2009.
The changes made it possible for everyone to view certain personal profile information of its users. Earlier, Facebook users could regulate as to who their information was visible to.
Earlier in March, a similar agreement was reached between the FTC and search engine company Google. Also in 2010, the FTC settled charges with Twitter, which allegedly failed to safeguard its users’ personal information.
