Facebook is nearing a settlement with federal regulators that would require the world’s most popular online hangout to obtain approval from its users before making changes that expose their profiles and activities to a wider audience. Citing unnamed people familiar with the situation, The Wall Street Journal reports Facebook has agreed to make the changes to resolve a nearly two-year-old investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. If the settlement is approved by FTC commissioners, it would reportedly require Facebook to get explicit consent from its 800 million users before changing its privacy settings. Seeking a user’s prior consent is known as an “opt in.” Facebook sometimes makes changes that it believes will improve its social network and then leaves it to users to reset the things that they don’t like—a process known as “opting out.” Companies introducing a feature or service generally prefer an “opt out” system because fewer people take the steps required to get out of the changes. The FTC opened its probe into Facebook after the website made changes that automatically showed users’ names, pictures, hometowns and other personal information available for anyone on the Web to see. That upset people who had deliberately programmed their privacy settings to confine that information to a specific group of friends or family. As part of the proposed settlement, Facebook would also reportedly submit to government reviews of its privacy practices for 20 years.
Today’s poll question: Do you trust Facebook to change its privacy settings without getting consent from you first?
