The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) says Facebook's Timeline might violate a settlement that Facebook reached with the FTC last year. EPIC has sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting them to investigate whether Facebook's new "Timeline" feature is legal.
According to a statement by EPIC,"with Timeline, Facebook has once again taken control over the user's data from the user and has now made information that was essentially archived and inaccessible widely available without the consent of the user."
As would be expected Facebook addresses the charges explaining that Facebook gives people seven days to review their Timeline before it becomes public and the new "Activity Log" feature helps users monitor what information they're sharing.
Facebook settled charges with the FTC in November that it failed to follow its own privacy policies. The FTC complaint accused Facebook of sharing its users’ personal information with advertisers and changing its privacy policies without obtaining its users' consent.
The settlement with the FTC requires Facebook to implement a comprehensive privacy program, including outside privacy audits, for the next 20 years. Facebook is barred from misrepresenting its privacy practices going forward and could face fines of $16,000 per violation, per day if fails to comply with the order.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded to the FTC settlement back in Novemeber with a blog post that admitted to making "a bunch of mistakes" but said that shouldn't overshadow "much of the good work we've done."
The debate continues as to your right to privacy on the internet. Perhaps the best advice to anyone using social media is to not post anything you would not want shared with 800 million of your closest friends.
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