Those privacy auditors might very well wind up on Zuckerberg's best-friends list because, assuming Facebook lives up to its agreements, the audits will serve as government verification that it's being honest about how it treats user information. It's almost as if the FTC is putting its stamp of approval on Facebook's future privacy policies. of sharing user information with app developers even though the user had restricted that information to "Only Friends" or "Friends of Friends." The FTC claimed that Facebook apps installed by members were able to gather information on their Facebook friends, even though those friends never gave permission to share their information.
One of the biggest indictments in the complaint is the allegation that Facebook disclosed user information to advertisers despite consistent claims that it never did so. Facebook's strategy is to deliver targeted ads directly to consumers. If an advertiser wishes to reach 35-year-old married women in Silicon Valley, Facebook will happily display their ad to that demographic, but says it won't actually turn over the names of those members to the advertisers. The FTC points out that Facebook's stated privacy policy was (and remains): "We don't share information with advertisers without your consent." The FTC quoted Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg as saying, "We never share your personal information with advertisers. We never sell your personal information to anyone."
Yet, according to the agency, "In many instances, Facebook has shared information about users with Platform Advertisers by identifying to them the users who clicked on their ads and to whom those ads were targeted." My first reaction to that accusation was anger toward Facebook. As the FTC put it, "from at least September 2008 until May 26, 2010, Facebook designed and operated its website such that, in many instances, the User ID for a user who clicked on a Platform Ad was shared with the Platform Advertiser." In May 2010 Facebook engineer Matt Jones blogged that the company fixed this "unintentional oversight" and designed a redirector that removes the referrer.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, writing in the official Facebook blog, took full responsibility for denying anything was wrong. He pointed out that most of the egregious violations of policy had been fixed within two years, and reassured users that Facebook’s terrible track record on privacy in no way suggested that the company had a terrible privacy track record. Zuckerberg also welcomed federal oversight, saying, “I’m sure they’ll do a great job protecting your privacy. The settlement with the FTC requires Facebook to alert users in advance to any privacy changes, seek community input on policy, and deliver all user posts and information to the Central Privacy Bureau, located in an undisclosed location somewhere deep within the hills of Wyoming, for permanent privacy retention.
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