Facebook’s “Privacy Fiasco” Reaches New Milestone With FTC Complaint

-Privacy Enhancements Quoted Icon- Facebook has been hoping that the new privacy changes would just blow over. Unfortunately for Facbeook, a group of ten privacy and consumer groups announced today that they have filed a complaint with the FTC, alleging that the the privacy-policy changes violate federal law. The group is “urging the FTP ‘to open an investigation into the recent changes made by Facebook … and to require Facebook to restore privacy safeguards.’”

The privacy “fiasco” centers around Facebook’s new transition tool which encourages users to open up their profile so that more data is publicly available. Facebook has been fighting against negative press, even blocking some articles that aggressively condemn Facebook’s new privacy changes. Winning this complaint with the FTC will be critical for Facebook not only from a public relations position but from an overall strategic position.

At All Facebook we have been covering the ongoing changes and while Facebook has been making changes which appear to cater to user demands, it’s clear that the new privacy changes have left more than a few users bitter. We’ve even received numerous emails from users who claim to be closing their accounts as a result of the new changes. It will be interesting to see how this new issue with the FTC unfolds as it’s critical to Facebook’s ongoing Twitterfication.

Andrew Noyes of Facebook told MarketWatch that “We’ve had productive discussions with dozens of organizations around the world about the recent changes, and we’re disappointed that EPIC has chosen to share their concerns with the FTC while refusing to talk to us about them.” This could end up being a massive strategic blow to Facebook if the FTC rules against them. For now we’ll have to watch as this story unfolds.

A copy of the complaint has been embedded below, as posted by Peter Kafka.

Update
Facebook has sent us their full statement regarding the FTC complaint:

“We’ve had productive discussions with dozens of organizations around the world about the recent changes and we’re disappointed that EPIC has chosen to share their concerns with the FTC while refusing to talk to us about them.

Facebook’s plan to provide users control over their privacy and how they share content is unprecedented in the Internet age. We have gone to great lengths to inform users about our platform changes, beginning with our July announcement; founder Mark Zuckerberg’s open letter to our 350 million users; our robust press and analyst outreach; the notice-and-comment framework for our new privacy policy; and simple customization tools for users.

We’re pleased that so many users have already gone through the process of reviewing and updating their privacy settings and are impressed that so many have chosen to customize their settings, demonstrating the effectiveness of Facebook’s user empowerment and transparency efforts. Of course, the new tools offer users the opportunity to decide on privacy with every photo, link or status update they wish to post, so the process of personalizing privacy on Facebook will continue.

We discussed the privacy program with many regulators, including the FTC, prior to launch and expect to continue to work with them in the future.”

EPIC-FacebookComplaint –

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927619 Comments2009-12-17+20%3A49%3A19Nick+O%27Neill »

I scanned the complaint, but could not find what federal law FB is allegedly violating. It would have been nice if the article explained this.

Comment by adampasz — December 17, 2009 @ 12:46 pm
I dislike how I do not have the ability to control my own information. I should be able to hide my "Friends" and "Mutual Friends", so I do not need to share whom I have relations with. Being able to maintain my privacy is a fundamental right on my part. In response, I deactivated my Facebook.

Furthermore, in response to Facebook's comment "We’re pleased that so many users have already gone through the process of reviewing and updating their privacy settings and are impressed that so many have chosen to customize their settings, demonstrating the effectiveness of Facebook’s user empowerment and transparency efforts." This proves nothing. I wager 90% of the people do not even read the new privacy rules. People just want to get straight to their profile and do whatever it is that they need/want to do thus they click the necessary buttons needed to bypass these messages. Furthermore, one CANNOT conclude that people who actually go through the new privacy settings and who actually go through the process of setting it up are satisfied with the new privacy issues.

Comment by Douglas — December 17, 2009 @ 1:12 pm
FTC complaint? Really?! The new privacy settings are much easier to use than before. My status updates were limited to certain groups of friends before the transition and stayed that way during the transition.

Encouragement and unauthorized change are completely different.

Comment by Facebook User — December 17, 2009 @ 5:27 pm
Give me a break. They did not disclose the new settings in any depth. They simply threw them at us. Now we have no real control and minors are open game. I was able to hide my friends list from a select group of strangers that all FB games almost require us to have in order to play, now it has been taken away and all my "friends" have total access to my friends and family, including any under 18 members. This has caused them to send "friend requests" by phishing my friends list. Privacy settings easier to use, in what world? I find them much harder than before and far more confusing. I want more control not less. When you give a consumer a feature it is simply bad form to take it away. I could care less for any advertising reasons or whatever "hits" they are after. Find another way. I know there are numerous people that are leaving FB over this issue. It is simply a sad day. But there is little remorse on this side for poor FB's dilemma.

Give the consumers and the children a fair place to interact and play, with the ability to restrict how they choose!

Comment by Lisa — December 17, 2009 @ 9:20 pm
I would be very happy if the privacy setting return back to how it was before the privacy announcement. I would like the 'only friends' option to be added so as to enforce my privacy.

Comment by Glory To Zee — December 17, 2009 @ 10:36 pm
Good a complaint has been filed ! They need to learn the hard way so be it ! Next time they'll think twice before forcing their users to show their lists of friends to every one on Facebook.

Comment by Stephane — December 17, 2009 @ 11:05 pm
However, anonymous, some information you no longer have any control over at all. None. Your profile picture, fan pages, friends list, location, and gender are now considered fully public information. This is a huge change.

*sigh*. Do people really not get it, or do they just not care?

Comment by Cheryl Gilbert — December 18, 2009 @ 4:38 am
With specific jobs people need to have private accounts. I need the add me as a friend removed from my page. I love Facebook but now feel like I might need to delete my page. Please fix this.

Comment by Rachel — December 18, 2009 @ 5:22 am
I have also deactivated my account. It opens a person up to malicious attacks from ex-partners and the like. It also allows agencies and companies to obtain information about you that you wish to keep among your private circle of friends.

I am disgusted and will not use FB until this changes.

Comment by Marie — December 18, 2009 @ 8:35 am
Isn’t it simple? Give users COMPLETE control over what they publish to EVERYONE if Facebook believes (by their default settings) that everyone does? The actually don’t believe this or all info would be a user choice.

Past, present and future needs consideration. Past terms and conditions under which content was published. Present changes that expose existing content with only a warning to those that happen to actually log on. Future exposure when things like Google Goggle become reality and some weirdo at the local convenience store takes a pic of your gf then uses Google Goggle to look her up on Facebook and extract more intimate knowledge based on her friends, friend’s friends, pages and all the above that may be exposed beyond the direct target.

Comment by Larry — December 18, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
I just noticed as of today, Facebook tweaked the privacy settings under Contact Information for better control of who can ADD AS FRIEND or SEND YOU A MESSAGE.. yesterday, it was either Everyone or Friends of Friends..

Maybe they are listening?? It's a good start.. keep giving the user's that need privacy control.. complete control.

Comment by Larry — December 19, 2009 @ 8:49 am
Their new privacy settings are terrible. I enjoy the ability to filter status updates and that sort, but that your fan pages, profile picture, etc are considered “public information” is very unsettling. If they are going to do this, then they should restrict facebook to only university accounts again. Now any creepy guy can create an account and try to add you.

It’s unsettling. Either I turn off “add requests” completely so no one can add me or find me (which you shouldn’t have to do) or I change my profile picture to something that is not me (which supposedly is fraud, according to facebook) or I keep it up with my face and my add settings and continue to get adds from strange men. I really don’t appreciate it nor do I appreciate that just anyone can see my profile picture.

Not only that but Facebook did not clearly explain their new settings. When the new settings came up, I opted for “keep my old settings,” but despite this I found that ALL my profile pictures were available to EVERYONE and that my albums were ready for clicking by “friends of friends.” Before this setting simply meant that your friends’ friends could see the photos that they were tagged in and perhaps if they clicked on “view” album they could go through all the photos. However you go not simply go to someones page and so obviously have all the users albums ready for the picking.

I had to go through all my settings and change things, and I have seen many people who had their profile picture’s hidden now have them available for everyone..because they most likely do not realize that Facebook more or less…tricked us. Ugh, just as above, if they don’t change things, I’m fairly certain they’re going to lose a lot of users.

The previous privacy option, I’m sure is what enticed many public figures to use facebook…and now they can no longer hide their accounts or faces.

Comment by Dee — December 20, 2009 @ 12:48 pm
Good. I find FB's new changes nothing more than bully tactics. Well done to the organisation that took them to the FTC. The changes they made was in FB's own interest, i.e. allowing everyone/anyone to view your friends, it seems FB are hoping you will click as many people as possible to be your friend. These privacy changes have by far taken our rights away as to things we could previously restrict. I look forward to this ruling.

Comment by MC — December 21, 2009 @ 6:51 am
I see alot of ppl are finding the fact that FB has taken the ability to hide friends hard to swallow. i just saw that if u click on ur privacy settings, and click 'privacy' you can send them a written suggestion. i recommend that as many ppl as possible write in to this to complain, the more ppl that do it the more chance we will get to be able to hide key features. i think its really odd that they just did this, but anyway hopefully they will rectify soon.

Comment by Sean — December 21, 2009 @ 7:04 am
Facebook's deceptive practices are beyond unethical and if anything, criminal. They lured millions to their site under false pretenses. There is no denying a BAIT AND SWITCH move on Facebook's part. Planned and calculated.

The loss of users doesn't concern Facebook at all, nor does the safety or privacy of those who stay. The growth they predicted from these changes outweighed the decrease of users they planned on anyway. Greedy, negligent, sociopathic in their severely unethical business practices, these guys running the show should suffer the consequences, severely. They've been warned before, but their arrogance and reckless disregard for rules and ethics allowed them to continue on their path of corruption. They didn't appreciate any of the pardons to past transgressions, and they're completely confident that they'll get away with this HUGE violation as well. I hope the FTC hands them the severe reality check they truly deserve.

Comment by Laura — December 21, 2009 @ 11:45 am
How do I hide my friends list from FRIENDS?

I had a very terrifying experience with a stalker a couple years ago (it was someone i knew) and I'm terrified that I no longer have control over my friends list privacy. All someone has to do is click through my friends list and find out all sorts of information about me through their profiles. Agh, this is awful.

Comment by anon — December 26, 2009 @ 5:47 am
I totally agree with you Laura.

Not only have we lost the capacity to hide our friend list, which most people know about and have complained, but whenever we like a status, comment on a picture or status, become a fan, member of a group etc, this is posted on our wall, and on the news feed of all our friends. Even if you manually delete each post from your wall, it remains visible to our friends (or to everyone, depending on your settings). This not only goes against MY privacy, but that of my friends. I commented on a photo, and ALL my friends can see my comment, and said photo. Who says my friend wants to share this photo with my friends? Total disregard to privacy.

Comment by labz — December 27, 2009 @ 11:36 am
All FB has done was create a one size fits all solution which really has provided less privacy control not more. The old settings were fabulous if you took the time to look into what custom features were available. However, many users did not know they existed or how to customize them so FB was asked by privacy groups and Government agencies to make it easier. Voila, this is what we ended up with. It makes sense to me that the default settings should be complete privacy and then allow users to remove controls as they see fit not the other way around. Once personal information is unleashed on the Internet then it's too late.

Comment by Pinktec — December 29, 2009 @ 3:45 pm
[...] we have no way to tally the number of complaining posts using the new privacy settings to limit visibility to [...]

Pingback by Are Facebook Users Complaining More Than Usual? — September 21, 2011 @ 3:10 am

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I scanned the complaint, but could not find what federal law FB is allegedly violating. It would have been nice if the article explained this.

Comment by adampasz — December 17, 2009 @ 12:46 pm

I dislike how I do not have the ability to control my own information. I should be able to hide my "Friends" and "Mutual Friends", so I do not need to share whom I have relations with. Being able to maintain my privacy is a fundamental right on my part. In response, I deactivated my Facebook.

Furthermore, in response to Facebook's comment "We’re pleased that so many users have already gone through the process of reviewing and updating their privacy settings and are impressed that so many have chosen to customize their settings, demonstrating the effectiveness of Facebook’s user empowerment and transparency efforts." This proves nothing. I wager 90% of the people do not even read the new privacy rules. People just want to get straight to their profile and do whatever it is that they need/want to do thus they click the necessary buttons needed to bypass these messages. Furthermore, one CANNOT conclude that people who actually go through the new privacy settings and who actually go through the process of setting it up are satisfied with the new privacy issues.

Comment by Douglas — December 17, 2009 @ 1:12 pm

FTC complaint? Really?! The new privacy settings are much easier to use than before. My status updates were limited to certain groups of friends before the transition and stayed that way during the transition.

Encouragement and unauthorized change are completely different.

Comment by Facebook User — December 17, 2009 @ 5:27 pm

Give me a break. They did not disclose the new settings in any depth. They simply threw them at us. Now we have no real control and minors are open game. I was able to hide my friends list from a select group of strangers that all FB games almost require us to have in order to play, now it has been taken away and all my "friends" have total access to my friends and family, including any under 18 members. This has caused them to send "friend requests" by phishing my friends list. Privacy settings easier to use, in what world? I find them much harder than before and far more confusing. I want more control not less. When you give a consumer a feature it is simply bad form to take it away. I could care less for any advertising reasons or whatever "hits" they are after. Find another way. I know there are numerous people that are leaving FB over this issue. It is simply a sad day. But there is little remorse on this side for poor FB's dilemma.

Give the consumers and the children a fair place to interact and play, with the ability to restrict how they choose!

Comment by Lisa — December 17, 2009 @ 9:20 pm

I would be very happy if the privacy setting return back to how it was before the privacy announcement. I would like the 'only friends' option to be added so as to enforce my privacy.

Comment by Glory To Zee — December 17, 2009 @ 10:36 pm

Good a complaint has been filed ! They need to learn the hard way so be it ! Next time they'll think twice before forcing their users to show their lists of friends to every one on Facebook.

Comment by Stephane — December 17, 2009 @ 11:05 pm

However, anonymous, some information you no longer have any control over at all. None. Your profile picture, fan pages, friends list, location, and gender are now considered fully public information. This is a huge change.

*sigh*. Do people really not get it, or do they just not care?

Comment by Cheryl Gilbert — December 18, 2009 @ 4:38 am

With specific jobs people need to have private accounts. I need the add me as a friend removed from my page. I love Facebook but now feel like I might need to delete my page. Please fix this.

Comment by Rachel — December 18, 2009 @ 5:22 am

I have also deactivated my account. It opens a person up to malicious attacks from ex-partners and the like. It also allows agencies and companies to obtain information about you that you wish to keep among your private circle of friends.

I am disgusted and will not use FB until this changes.

Comment by Marie — December 18, 2009 @ 8:35 am

Isn’t it simple? Give users COMPLETE control over what they publish to EVERYONE if Facebook believes (by their default settings) that everyone does? The actually don’t believe this or all info would be a user choice.

Past, present and future needs consideration. Past terms and conditions under which content was published. Present changes that expose existing content with only a warning to those that happen to actually log on. Future exposure when things like Google Goggle become reality and some weirdo at the local convenience store takes a pic of your gf then uses Google Goggle to look her up on Facebook and extract more intimate knowledge based on her friends, friend’s friends, pages and all the above that may be exposed beyond the direct target.

Comment by Larry — December 18, 2009 @ 12:51 pm

I just noticed as of today, Facebook tweaked the privacy settings under Contact Information for better control of who can ADD AS FRIEND or SEND YOU A MESSAGE.. yesterday, it was either Everyone or Friends of Friends..

Maybe they are listening?? It's a good start.. keep giving the user's that need privacy control.. complete control.

Comment by Larry — December 19, 2009 @ 8:49 am

Their new privacy settings are terrible. I enjoy the ability to filter status updates and that sort, but that your fan pages, profile picture, etc are considered “public information” is very unsettling. If they are going to do this, then they should restrict facebook to only university accounts again. Now any creepy guy can create an account and try to add you.

It’s unsettling. Either I turn off “add requests” completely so no one can add me or find me (which you shouldn’t have to do) or I change my profile picture to something that is not me (which supposedly is fraud, according to facebook) or I keep it up with my face and my add settings and continue to get adds from strange men. I really don’t appreciate it nor do I appreciate that just anyone can see my profile picture.

Not only that but Facebook did not clearly explain their new settings. When the new settings came up, I opted for “keep my old settings,” but despite this I found that ALL my profile pictures were available to EVERYONE and that my albums were ready for clicking by “friends of friends.” Before this setting simply meant that your friends’ friends could see the photos that they were tagged in and perhaps if they clicked on “view” album they could go through all the photos. However you go not simply go to someones page and so obviously have all the users albums ready for the picking.

I had to go through all my settings and change things, and I have seen many people who had their profile picture’s hidden now have them available for everyone..because they most likely do not realize that Facebook more or less…tricked us. Ugh, just as above, if they don’t change things, I’m fairly certain they’re going to lose a lot of users.

The previous privacy option, I’m sure is what enticed many public figures to use facebook…and now they can no longer hide their accounts or faces.

Comment by Dee — December 20, 2009 @ 12:48 pm

Good. I find FB's new changes nothing more than bully tactics. Well done to the organisation that took them to the FTC. The changes they made was in FB's own interest, i.e. allowing everyone/anyone to view your friends, it seems FB are hoping you will click as many people as possible to be your friend. These privacy changes have by far taken our rights away as to things we could previously restrict. I look forward to this ruling.

Comment by MC — December 21, 2009 @ 6:51 am

I see alot of ppl are finding the fact that FB has taken the ability to hide friends hard to swallow. i just saw that if u click on ur privacy settings, and click 'privacy' you can send them a written suggestion. i recommend that as many ppl as possible write in to this to complain, the more ppl that do it the more chance we will get to be able to hide key features. i think its really odd that they just did this, but anyway hopefully they will rectify soon.

Comment by Sean — December 21, 2009 @ 7:04 am

Facebook's deceptive practices are beyond unethical and if anything, criminal. They lured millions to their site under false pretenses. There is no denying a BAIT AND SWITCH move on Facebook's part. Planned and calculated.

The loss of users doesn't concern Facebook at all, nor does the safety or privacy of those who stay. The growth they predicted from these changes outweighed the decrease of users they planned on anyway. Greedy, negligent, sociopathic in their severely unethical business practices, these guys running the show should suffer the consequences, severely. They've been warned before, but their arrogance and reckless disregard for rules and ethics allowed them to continue on their path of corruption. They didn't appreciate any of the pardons to past transgressions, and they're completely confident that they'll get away with this HUGE violation as well. I hope the FTC hands them the severe reality check they truly deserve.

Comment by Laura — December 21, 2009 @ 11:45 am

How do I hide my friends list from FRIENDS?

I had a very terrifying experience with a stalker a couple years ago (it was someone i knew) and I'm terrified that I no longer have control over my friends list privacy. All someone has to do is click through my friends list and find out all sorts of information about me through their profiles. Agh, this is awful.

Comment by anon — December 26, 2009 @ 5:47 am

I totally agree with you Laura.

Not only have we lost the capacity to hide our friend list, which most people know about and have complained, but whenever we like a status, comment on a picture or status, become a fan, member of a group etc, this is posted on our wall, and on the news feed of all our friends. Even if you manually delete each post from your wall, it remains visible to our friends (or to everyone, depending on your settings). This not only goes against MY privacy, but that of my friends. I commented on a photo, and ALL my friends can see my comment, and said photo. Who says my friend wants to share this photo with my friends? Total disregard to privacy.

Comment by labz — December 27, 2009 @ 11:36 am

All FB has done was create a one size fits all solution which really has provided less privacy control not more. The old settings were fabulous if you took the time to look into what custom features were available. However, many users did not know they existed or how to customize them so FB was asked by privacy groups and Government agencies to make it easier. Voila, this is what we ended up with. It makes sense to me that the default settings should be complete privacy and then allow users to remove controls as they see fit not the other way around. Once personal information is unleashed on the Internet then it's too late.

Comment by Pinktec — December 29, 2009 @ 3:45 pm

[...] we have no way to tally the number of complaining posts using the new privacy settings to limit visibility to [...]

Pingback by Are Facebook Users Complaining More Than Usual? — September 21, 2011 @ 3:10 am

Facebook’s “Privacy Fiasco” Reaches New Milestone With FTC Complaint

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