(Image source from: No Real Privacy in Facebook })

Are you addicted to Facebook. Well, this might surprise you. On Friday Facebook has reaffirmed that it can use the personal information and postings of 1.2 billion accounts on its service for the purposes of advertisement. According to reports, the new privacy policies of the social media website was announced in a blog post in its site.

Initially, Facebook had included a line on how minors joining the site would need a parent or guardian for consent before their content are used in ads, but later it was removed. Now Facebook  says that the permission is considered granted once the teenager joins the site.

These changes were proposed first in August by Facebook, following which there were complains by privacy groups that minors were being exploited by Facebook in September. This attracted the attention of the Federal Trade Commission. Changes were made after Facebook had to make a $20 million settlement in a class action lawsuit in August. Earlier in 2011, the FTC and Facebook had reached on a settlement over the issue of alleged violations of privacy by the social website. In the settlement, Facebook had agreed for checkups by independent auditors, who would from a third-party, for the next 20 years to ensure compliance of privacy policies and practices by the company.

However, the users of Facebook are still confused regarding the privacy options, inspite of clarification by the site.

(Picture Source: www2.macleans.ca)

(AW: Pratima Tigga)