Privacy groups complain to FTC over Facebook privacy tweaks

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is taking its beef with Facebook’s privacy policies to the Federal Trade Commission once again. A new complaint comes in the wake of Facebook’s latest updates to its privacy policy. According to EPIC and 14 other consumer groups, Facebook’s decision to open up even more personal information as “public” is a violation of user expectations, it diminishes privacy, and it contradicts Facebook’s own representations about how the service works.

In the complaint, which was filed on Wednesday, the groups accused Facebook of engaging in unfair and deceptive trade practices and violating consumer protection laws. In addition to the 38-page document (PDF) submitted to the FTC, EPIC also sent a letter (PDF) to Congress, asking members of the Senate and House to keep a close eye on the Commission’s investigation into Facebook.

“Facebook continues to manipulate the privacy settings of users and its own privacy policy so that it can take personal information provided by users for a limited purpose and make it widely available for commercial purposes,” reads the letter. “The company has done this repeatedly and users are becoming increasingly angry and frustrated.”

This new complaint will be stacked on top of a previous complaint from EPIC filed in December, along with numerous others filed by other organizations (such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation). The groups have expressed their frustration over the FTC’s inability to move quickly on these issues, but indicated that they still hold out hope that the Commission can take steps to protect user privacy on behalf of Facebook’s userbase.

Update: Facebook responded to the complaint by noting once again that it believes it’s working within legal limits by pushing out its latest feature set. “Our new features are providing beneficial new social experiences to people around the world that are transparent, consistent with user expectations, and in full compliance with legal requirements,” Facebook spokesperson Andrew Noyes told Ars.