The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), along with nine other privacy and consumer organizations, has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charging that Facebook's recent changes to user privacy settings violate federal consumer protection law.

The EPIC complaint wants the FTC to open an investigation into the changes made by Facebook to the privacy setting of its users and require the social network to restore privacy safeguards.

"This is the most significant case now before the Federal Trade Commission," said Marc Rotenberg, EPIC Executive Director.

"More than 100 million people in the United States subscribe to the Facebook service. The company should not be allowed to turn down the privacy dial on son many American consumers.

According to the EPIC complaint, far more user information became publicly available as a result of this change. EPIC also said that more personal information will become available to third party application developers as a result of the changes to the privacy settings.

Among the organizations supporting the EPIC complaint are the American Library Association, the Center for Digital Democracy, the Consumer Federation of America, FoolProof Financial Education, Patent Privacy Rights, Privacy Activism, the Privacy Rights now Coalition, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and the U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation.
 

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