Privacy groups urge Facebook probe

Sep 29, 2011, 22:08 GMT

Washington - Ten public interest groups called Thursday for an official probe of Facebook following allegations that the social networking giant tracks the activities of users even after they leave the site.

In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) and nine other groups also called for an investigation into whether Facebook's new Ticker and Timeline features pose increased privacy risks by making a large amount of biographical information easily available.

'Facebook has been tracking the Internet activity of users even after they have logged out of Facebook,' the consumer groups stated in the letter.

'Facebook has been engaging in post-log-out tracking for at least a year, and only issued a partial fix after facing intense criticism, indicating an unwillingness to respect consumer privacy without external pressure.'

Referring to the introduction of Facebook's new features, EPIC said that 'these changes in business practices give the company far greater ability to disclose the personal information of its users to its business partners than in the past.'

'Options for users to preserve the privacy standards they have established have become confusing, impractical, and unfair,' the letter stated.

Two prominent legislators also called for a probe into alleged privacy violations by Facebook.

'When users log out of Facebook, they are under the expectation that Facebook is no longer monitoring their activities,' wrote Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey and Texas Republican Joe Barton. 'We believe this impression should be the reality. Facebook users should not be tracked without their permission.'

EPIC letter: http://bit.ly/riyyg6