According to a settlement it is negotiating with the United States Federal Trade Commission, users would have to opt-in to its sharing privacy settings instead of opting out of it. That means that by default, users would not share any content submitted in the social network with anyone. They need to check an option first in order to share contents to the public. Pennsylvania

Facebook will also be required to submit privacy audits for a period of twenty years, which is similar to the deal made by Google when the search giant was investigated by the FTC last March. Once the FTC approves the settlement, Facebook have to get the consent of its 800 million users before it could change its privacy settings.

The settlement came from an FTC probe made in December 2009. People were complaining that Facebook made changes in its privacy settings where personal information such as profile photos was shown to the public.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his top executive Sheryl Sandberg discussed privacy during an hour-long interview with Charlie Rose that was aired on PBS earlier this week. They insisted that the social network values user privacy more than anything else. Zuckerberg said that people voluntarily gave their personal information on Facebook, unlike other companies that collect data behind people’s back.

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