The Federal Trade Commission has accepted a final settlement with Facebook, initially proposed last year , which requires that all future changes to privacy settings on the social network be made opt-in. Further, the company must undergo biennial privacy audits for the next 20 years from an independent third party. Since 2009, Facebook has been under investigation by federal authorities and American senators in the wake of a series of incidents involving the sudden change of users’ privacy settings, most notably Facebook Beacon , which shut down that same year. On Friday, FTC commissioners voted 3-1-1 (including one abstention) and said that they would be keeping a close eye on the company. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Future changes to Facebook privacy settings to be opt-in