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A complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission accuses Facebook of not having protected the sensitive health data of its groups.
The complaint, filed with the agency last month and released today, says the company has incorrectly disclosed information about members of closed groups. The issue came to the public's attention in July when members of a group of women with a gene mutation called BRCA discovered that sensitive information, such as members' names and email addresses, could be downloaded. Bulk, manually or via a Chrome extension.
Around the same time, Facebook changed the groups that ended the practice, but said the decision was not related to BRCA's concerns. The company also said at the time that the ability to view the data was not a flaw in privacy, and indicated that there was also an option for "secret" groups, which are more difficult to reach but whose possibility of discovery is more limited.
The complaint, which was filed by a security researcher and advocates of BRCA, among others, claims that Facebook has not specified what personal information users could give up when they join a group. Although the company may have also changed its ability to view personal information, the complaint states that it is still too easy for a member to collect information about other members of a group.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company is already in the process of negotiating a multi-billion dollar fine with the FTC for violating privacy.
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