For past three years, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was secretly investigating Facebook's violation of its users' privacy.

However, in a recent development, FTC has settled its privacy complaint against Facebook after reaching a mutual agreement that the social network will obtain “express consent” before they share any information of said users outside its pre-written privacy settings.

According to the agreement, Mark Zuckerberg's network will have to provide users with “clear and prominent notice” – any time when user's information is shared. Further, the agreement also will make sure that Facebook will keep a “comprehensive privacy program” maintained and will subject to biennial privacy audits.

Additionally, in the case of violation of these laws. Facebook will have to pay fines upwards of $16,000 apiece.

Observing the past records, Facebook's privacy problems began in 2009, when it was discovered the company was divulging the private information of users who had opted out of sharing. However, now the settlement is the final end of a process which started in November of 2011.

This newsbreak has comes just a day after the FTC’s settlement with Google which resulted in a $22.5 million dollar fine. According to reports, “That fine was the largest ever levied by the company for a violation of their orders.”

Meanwhile, the company's commissioners issued a joint statement on August 10 below.

“ We intend to monitor closely Facebook’s compliance with the order, and will not hesitate to seek civil penalties for any violations.… A statement from Facebook about an app’s conduct may well amount to a promise that Facebook is taking steps to assure the level of privacy or security that the app provides for consumers’ information.”

The US trade commission expects that Facebook must obtain consumers' consent before sharing their information beyond established privacy settings. Do you agree on that part?

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