In Nov. 2011, Facebook settled charges by the Federal Trade Commission that it deceived consumers by advising them they could keep their information on the social network private and then allowing it to be shared and made public.
In the wake of the revelations about Cambridge Analytica, the FTC reportedly is examining whether Facebook violated the terms of the settlement.
Cambridge Analytica, a voter-profiling firm, derived data from more than 50 million Facebook profiles that it accessed via a third-party app. A data scientist at Cambridge University harvested the data starting in June 2014.
That may have contravened the 2011 settlement. Among the charges by the FTC that led to the settlement:
Facebook represented that third-party apps that users’ installed would have access only to user information that they needed to operate. In fact, the apps could access nearly all of users’ personal data – data the apps didn’t need.
The FTC further charged:
Facebook told users they could restrict sharing of data to limited audiences – for example with “Friends Only.” In fact, selecting “Friends Only” did not prevent their information from being shared with third-party applications their friends used.
The settlement barred Facebook from misrepresenting the privacy or security of users’ personal information.