Privacy groups call for action to stop Facebook's off site user tracking plans

United States and European Union privacy and consumer groups called on privacy regulators to stop Facebook's plans to gather the Internet browsing patterns of its users while they visit other sites.

The groups, gathered in the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) to stop Facebook collecting the web browsing activities of Internet users in order to target advertising.

The groups also called on the FTC to examine whether Facebook's change in business practices violates a 2012 consent order between it and the FTC in a case involving the company's repeated sharing of information its users had asked to keep private