More Calls for FTC Investigation of Facebook

Add the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the ACLU, the American Library Association, the Center for Digital Democracy and a half dozen other groups to those calling for a Federal Trade commission investigation of Facebook.

In a letter dated the same day that a pair of House members called for an investigation into cookies that tracked Facebook users even after they logged out, the groups made a similar request.

"Facebook‟s tracking of post-log-out Internet activity violates both the reasonable expectations of consumers and the company's own privacy statements," said the groups in a letter to the chairman and four commissioners. They want the FTC to determine whether that tracking is "consistent with the policies and representations that were in place when consumers provided their personal information to Facebook or whether they constitute unfair and deceptive trade practices, in violation of consumer protection law in the United States."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.