On July 24, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint and stipulated consent order
against Facebook, the social networking site.
The FTC filed the complaint after investigations revealed that
Facebook was not complying with a 2012 FTC order to stop
misrepresenting the extent to which users controlled their privacy
settings; and that Facebook was engaging in new unfair and
deceptive privacy practices not previously identified in the 2012
matter.
The complaint recounts Facebook's business practices which
led to the 2012 order – namely, that Facebook shared personal
information not only with users' "friends" but also
with the third-party app developers whose apps were downloaded by
such friends – and alleges that Facebook permitted such
practices to continue through 2018 for a select few
"whitelisted" developers. Further, the complaint alleges
that Facebook failed to maintain reasonable privacy safeguards as
it had promised to set up in the 2012
