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Suzanne Choney

Privacy rights group, others seek Facebook investigation

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, ACLU and several other civil rights and privacy groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Facebook for its tracking of users on websites after they have logged out of the social networking site.

Facebook says it has stopped the practice, but that is not stopping the uproar about it. Reps. Edward Markey and Joe Barton, co-chairs of Congress's Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, also want the FTC to look into the issue.

EPIC and the ACLU are joined by the American Library Association, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, The Center for Digital Democracy, The Center for Media and Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumer Watchdog, PrivacyActivism and Privacy Times in seeking the probe.

The groups' also want the federal agency to review Facebook's information-gathering practices via its new Timeline and Ticker features, to see "whether the changes recently announced by Facebook are consistent with the policies and representations that were in place when consumers provided their personal information to Facebook or whether they constitute unfair and deceptive trade practices, in violation of consumer protection law in the United States."

Another major concern: Facebook's "frequent changes are confusing and increase the likelihood that a user will fail to adjust the profile settings necessary to ensure a desired level of privacy and security."

You can read the 14-page letter filed with the FTC here.

Related stories:

• Lawmakers ask FTC to investigate Facebook privacy issue
• Facebook to stop following you after log off
• Facebook shows off new Timeline profiles, apps and more
• Does Facebook's new ticker tell too much?

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