Facebook's Privacy Policy Revisions Catch FTC's Attention

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Facebook, Inc.'s privacy policy revisions, unveiled August 29, have drawn interest from the Federal Trade Commission, which seeks to ensure the so-called Tag Suggest function doesn't run afoul of a 2011 agreement in which the social media colossus agreed to government oversight of its privacy practices, according to an article by Reuters.

How Facebook advertisers and third-party applications handle users' personal data was the subject of a Facebook post on August 29. Among the proposed changes was the introduction of a potential Tag Suggest feature that makes use of facial recognition technology to match faces in images with public profile features, Reuters reported.

Having just agreed to fork over $20 million to settle the Sponsored Stories controversy (See "TUOL" post 8/30/12 for background), Facebook doesn't need the FTC "poking" around, so to speak.

FTC: Bloggers Must Fess Up to Perks

Image via Wikipedia

Federal Trade Commissioners voted unanimously (4-0) to implement rules effective December 1, 2009, requiring bloggers who review products to disclose any payments or freebies they receive from the products' manufacturers.

No concrete guidelines were offered by the FTC concerning how bloggers need to reveal any potential conflicts of interest. The federal agency has not changed its endorsement and testimonial rules since 1980, though this latest vote is the first to subject bloggers to agency rules.

Looks like "TUOL" is going to be shipping some boxes at UPS this week (not an endorsement).