Myspace settles privacy probe with FTC

(AP) Myspace, the once mighty social network, has settled a privacy investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and agreed to submit to privacy audits over the next 20 years.

The settlement, over charges that Myspace misrepresented its privacy policies to users, is similar to a deal the FTC struck with Facebook in November.

The FTC says that despite telling users it would not share personally identifiable information with others, Myspace gave advertisers users' "Friend ID" numbers. That allowed advertisers to find users' publicly available personal information, often including full names. It could even lead advertisers to discover users' web-browsing activity.

In the settlement, Myspace agreed not to misrepresent its privacy policies, to implement a comprehensive privacy program and to submit to regular, independent privacy assessments for two decades.

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