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<\/a>Meaningful? Or meaningless? You make the call: The Federal Trade Commission has told the group that filed a greivance<\/a> about Facebook’s recent privacy changes<\/a> that it its “complaint raises issues of particular interest at this time.”<\/p>\nAnd that means…. hard to say.<\/p>\n
In a letter (pdf<\/a>) to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, David Vladeck, the FTC’s director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, says his agency would be happy to talk to EPIC about its concerns. But that’s about all he’s promising for now.<\/p>\n Just as important, Vladeck points out that he won’t and can’t say whether the FTC is formally investigating EPIC’s complaint, and that he’s not going to: “Please be advised, however, that any Commission investigation is non-public until the Commission decides to issue a formal complaint or investigation. As a result, we can neither confirm nor deny that we are conducting an investigation of the issues raised by your complaint.”<\/p>\n So there you go. Either the Feds are taking this very seriously, or they’re not.<\/p>\n As I’ve said before, Facebook may face some regulatory blowback for its privacy overhaul — otherwise known as the “please share as much of yourself as you can” campaign — in the US, and more likely in Europe. But unless it starts hearing from\u00a0 advertisers, I’m not sure how much farther this goes.<\/p>\n Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n