FTC getting an earful over Facebook privacy invasions
Better hurry up with those rumored changes to Beacon, Mark Zuckerberg. The Federal Trade Commission, which we warned might pose a problem, is about to get on your case. According to reports, agitators from the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy just announced their intent to file complaints with the commission. Maybe it's time to quit thinking this uproar is the same as last year's brief, quick-fading News Feed protest.
Truth is, most of this hysteria will go away as soon as Facebook makes Beacon an opt-in-only option. And that should happen soon. Otherwise, complaints to the commission could turn into a wider FTC investigation of all of Facebook's privacy policies.
And given what we've heard about Facebook employees' bad behavior when it comes to snooping on users, you probably don't want the FTC to go there, Zuck. While we've been asking about what measures, if any, Facebook is taking to prevent employees from abusing their privileges (ever going to tell us?), the FTC has these things calls subpoenas, which aren't nearly so polite.
