Facebook finalizing agreement on new privacy settings

PanARMENIAN.Net - Facebook is finalizing a settlement with U.S. federal regulators over deceptive changes it made to its privacy policies in 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The proposed settlement, with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, would resolve the accusations by privacy advocates that Facebook engaged in deceptive behavior with a number of changes it made in 2009 to privacy settings.

The New York Times said that the terms would mean that Facebook would have to agree to privacy audits for the next 20 years, but that it would not be required to ask users if they wanted to take part in any future in sharing features.

The 2009 changes required that certain personal profile information, such as a person's gender and the city they reside in, be viewable to everyone. Previously, Facebook users could limit the people to which that information was visible, The Guardian reported.