MySpace shared personal information with advertisers, FTC alleged.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced yesterday that MySpace has agreed to settle charges that it misled its users about its practices of sharing information with advertisers.
The (former?) social network's privacy policy indicated that personally identifiable information would not be used for purposes other than for which it was submitted, and that data used to customize ads would not identify individual users to third parties.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute and AT&T Labs noticed in 2009 that MySpace was breaking its own privacy policies by providing the Friend IDs associated with visited pages to third parties. Every MySpace user has a unique Friend ID, and therefore this information would allow third parties to associate browsing data with users' full names.
The FTC found MySpace to be in breach of the US-EU Safe Harbor Framework in its data sharing practices and pursued it in May 2010. Now MySpace has agreed to settle the case and establish a comprehensive privacy program, submitting to third-party audits for the next 20 years.
The (former?) social network's privacy policy indicated that personally identifiable information would not be used for purposes other than for which it was submitted, and that data used to customize ads would not identify individual users to third parties.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute and AT&T Labs noticed in 2009 that MySpace was breaking its own privacy policies by providing the Friend IDs associated with visited pages to third parties. Every MySpace user has a unique Friend ID, and therefore this information would allow third parties to associate browsing data with users' full names.
The FTC found MySpace to be in breach of the US-EU Safe Harbor Framework in its data sharing practices and pursued it in May 2010. Now MySpace has agreed to settle the case and establish a comprehensive privacy program, submitting to third-party audits for the next 20 years.
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