MySpace settles with FTC after misleading users

After being charged by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with sharing its users' personal information, including browsing habits, with advertisers, social networking service MySpace has agreed to settle. Although its privacy policy states that such information would not be provided without first giving users notice or receiving permission, MySpace shared the "friend IDs" of users who browsed specific pages on the site, according to a statement released last week by the FTC. As part of the settlement, MySpace must undergo biennial audits for the next 20 years and is blocked from making future privacy misrepresentations of its users' information. MySpace formerly was one of the most popular sites in the world, but thanks to Facebook's meteoric rise, its traffic ranking now stands at 156, according to Alexa.