EPIC Adds to FTC Complaint about Facebook Privacy Changes
The Electronic Privacy Information Center continued its birddogging of Facebook this week, adding to the FTC complaint it earlier filed alleging unfair and deceptive trade practices (WID Dec 18 p2) and contemplating sending a letter to the judge in the Facebook Beacon case challenging the settlement. EPIC said it had received a letter from FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director David Vladeck saying its complaint “raises issues of particular interest for us.”
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Facebook responded Friday by saying, “More than 300 million Facebook users have now successfully reviewed their privacy settings and are routinely utilizing our publisher privacy controls to decide who sees content they post at the moment they share it. EPIC’s new letter offers little or no new information to substantiate the claims they make.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent comments about privacy -- that if he were starting the site today, he would incorporate more openness because it’s the new norm (WID Jan 12 p7) -- pretty much make EPIC’s point, said EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg. Facebook’s recent shift in privacy policy is an unfair and deceptive trade practice that violated user expectations, diminished privacy and contradicted Facebook’s representations, EPIC said. More than 100 million Americans signed up for Facebook when the default settings were private, as recently as a month ago, yet Zuckerberg said privacy is no longer the social norm, EPIC said.
EPIC criticized Facebook’s iPhone syncing app, saying it doesn’t adequately reveal that users’ iPhone contacts will be transferred to Facebook or what will happen to that data once it gets there. The app will sync Facebook information even if a phone contact isn’t a Facebook friend, and sometimes will match strangers based on phone numbers, even if the names don’t match, EPIC said. Further, people who've chosen not to give Facebook their information, either as users or by not joining the site, could still end up with their information in Facebook’s hands if their friends use the iPhone syncing app, EPIC said. “Not only will information be transferred, but the phone contacts are left unaware of the information transfer. … There is no privacy setting on Facebook that allows Facebook users to prevent having their information shared in this way,” EPIC said.
The amended complaint also charged Facebook with misrepresenting the FTC’s role. It said that after it initially filed the complaint, Facebook said it had talked to regulators including the FTC before making the privacy changes, but Chairman Jon Leibowitz later said the FTC doesn’t give general advisory opinions in advance or “greenlight” changes. After the Leibowitz statement, Facebook told the Washington Post that it had offered a basic preview to the FTC and other regulators but hadn’t sought approval or endorsement. Friday, Facebook said it doesn’t comment on its meetings with the FTC.
Rotenberg said the group was also considering challenging the Facebook Beacon settlement (WID Oct 27 p5). The way the privacy foundation is established won’t serve the interests of the class, he said.