Two consumer groups urge Facebook to back off privacy changes

Two consumer watchdogs are urging Facebook founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to back off proposed changes to its policies that they say would curb the rights of its 1 billion-plus users and make more personal information available to advertisers without users' explicit consent in violation of a privacy settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

In a letter sent to Zuckerberg, the groups asked Facebook to be "responsive to the rights of Facebook users to control their personal information and to participate in the governance of Facebook." Most controversial to privacy watchdogs: Facebook's plans to begin sharing users' data between its own services and affiliates, most notably Instagram, which it bought earlier this year for about $715 million. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, allege that the proposed changes invade the privacy of Facebook users and "implicate" the terms of the privacy settlement Facebook reached with the FTC. European regulators also said that they expect Facebook to give European users the right to accept or reject whether they want to share their personal information with Facebook affiliates such as photo-sharing service Instagram.