by Daniel Costello

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission says it will meet with the Electronic Privacy Information Center to discuss the group's concerns about recent changes to Facebook's privacy settings.

FTC's director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection David Vladeck, wrote in a letter to EPIC last week that, "Your most recent complaint raises issues of particular interest for us at this time." Vladeck noted the increasing amount of personal user data being deposited on social-networking sites, adding that, "the Commission staff believes it is critical that companies provide transparency about how this data is being handled, maintained, shared and protected."

The EPIC complaint, which was signed by nine other privacy and consumer organizations, states that changes to Facebook's privacy settings "violate user expectations, diminish user privacy, and contradict Facebook's own representations."

Facebook responded to the complaint with this statement:

"We've had productive discussions with dozens of organizations around the world about the recent changes, and we're disappointed that EPIC has chosen to share their concerns with the FTC while refusing to talk to us about them."