MySpace settles with feds over privacy breaches

The Federal Trade Commission says the site shared its users' personal information. Without admitting or denying the charge, MySpace, which is owned by an OC-based Specific Media, agreed to obey its stated privacy policies, establish privacy controls, and submit to audits. Specific Media said it wanted to resolve the dispute and move on. From the NYT:

The F.T.C. asserted that from January 2009 through June 2010, and again from October 2010 through October 2011, Myspace transmitted information, including internal identification numbers assigned to users, along with their ages and sex, to outside advertising networks that served ads to Myspace. Using that information, the F.T.C. said, third parties could obtain the user's name and other personal information and use a file placed on the user's computer to view a history of Web sites visited.

From the WSJ:

Myspace provided advertisers with the "Friend IDs" of users who were viewing particular pages on the site. A Friend ID is a unique identifier linked to a Myspace user's personal profile. Advertisers could use that ID to look up the user's full name, age, gender, profile picture and other personal details, the FTC said. The ID also could be used to link a person's name to their broader Web-browsing activities, which most consumers assume to be anonymous.

MySpace hasn't received much attention since being sold by News Corp. in 2011. Specific Media did announce earlier this year that it added more than a million new users after launching the Myspace Music Player. But the site has been through so many revamps that it's hard to figure out what MySpace is all about these days.