Facebook settles US privacy violation charges

WASHINGTON: Facebook has agreed to tighten its privacy policies and submit to external audits in order to settle charges that it abused users' personal data, US authorities said Tuesday.

In a deal with the Federal Trade Commission, the social networking giant promised to honor users' privacy preferences and to stop making claims about the security of personal information that are untrue.

The deal settles two-year-old accusations that Facebook -- which has some 800 million users -- had allowed advertisers access to users' personal data when users were told it was being kept private.

"The proposed settlement requires Facebook to take several steps to make sure it lives up to its promises in the future," the FTC said in a statement.

That includes giving consumers "clear and prominent notice and obtaining consumers' express consent before their information is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established."

Facebook did not admit guilt and was not fined in the case, which arose from an investigation by privacy groups in December 2009 that it had deceived users over the protection of their personal data -- such as their name, age, location, gender and friends -- when it changed its privacy settings.

The FTC said Facebook had deceived users in several ways: promising it would not share personal data with advertisers and then doing so; saying that third party apps had limited access to personal data when they had full access; and making public data users specifically chose to remain private.

Facebook was barred from "making any further deceptive privacy claims" and ordered to regularly undergo a third party audit over the next 20 years to ensure it is keeping its promises.

It also must shut down all access to accounts deleted by customers in 30 days or less -- an issue many users have become focused on as employers often try to access potential employees' Facebook pages to find out more about them.

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement to users on the official Facebook Blog page that the company had already implemented many of the promises in the FTC settlement. (AFP)