While announcing a privacy issues-related settlement with Facebook last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that the popular social networking company had deceived its users - currently totaling more than 800 million worldwide - by convincing them that their information on the site will be kept private, even though it actually allowed the details to be shared as well as made public.

In its comprehensive compliant against Facebook, the FTC essentially made an attempt to prevent the social network from making the personal information of the users public - something that the company did back in 2009 - and resorting to other such measures.

Drawing attention to the fact that Facebook had been making deliberate alterations to its service numerous times over the years, the FTC said that the company had always been reiterating that the details of the users were not forwarded to the advertisers, even despite the fact that it actually "has provided advertisers with information about its users."

Further adding that the information that the users' details which Facebook was passing on to the advertisers comprised worryingly explicit information, the FTC said that Facebook's contentious policies gave the advertisers the chance to merge the users' real name with any targeted traits used for the ads clicked by them.

Meanwhile, under the non-punitive settlement which the FTC has worked out with Facebook, the social network would not have to pay any fine for its infamous user-privacy-related actions, but will have to promise that it would make the necessary amendments to resolve the privacy issues.