With Facebook reportedly close to cutting a deal with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over privacy sins dating back to 2009, the question remains whether or not the social network’s brain trust really gets the privacy issue.
The details–reported by the Wall Street Journal–of Facebook’s imminent pact with the FTC describe an agreement that gives the socnet plenty of room to violate its members’ privacy in the future. That’s because the deal affects a standing target–all the data currently on the system–and not the moving one, which is data added to the network in the future. It is the latter Facebook needs to address if privacy is truly going to be protected on the network.
Under the reported agreement, Facebook would need to obtain your permission before subjecting you to changes in its privacy policy that will “materially” affect how it handles your information. In the case before the FTC–which the agreement would settle–Facebook changed its privacy policy in 2009 so that information previously kept private, such as name, picture, city, gender and friends list, was suddenly made public.
The date you joined Facebook will affect the agreement’s notification requirement. What Facebook can do with your data will vary depending on what version of its privacy policy was in effect when you joined the network. Not only will that be totally confusing to you and everyone else on the network, but it should create some nightmares for Facebook’s administrators, too.
In addition, expressed consent won’t be needed for all changes nor will it be needed for new changes. That means if Facebook rolls out a feature like facial recognition or Timelines, which have significant privacy implications, it can do so whether you want to participate in the rollout or not
