Facebook Forced to Backtrack on Privacy Changes

In 2010, Facebook suffered a backlash by activating “Connections” and “Instant Personalization,” two features that shared users’ personal information with other Facebook users and with third-party sites without users’ consent. Thousands of users posted comments expressing their frustration at being forced to manually disable Instant Personalization, leading U.S. Senators to ask the FTC to investigate Facebook’s actions and call for simpler privacy controls. Less than two months later, Facebook was forced to backtrack by creating new privacy settings and making it easier for users to opt out of Instant Personalization.