Come 2013, Google, Facebook and other websites will undergo intense scrutiny from U.S. regulators on "industry and consumer rights groups over whether and how to allow consumers to limit tracking."
This year, Congress will reportedly revisit online security legislation meant to safeguard critical infrastructure from attack, which was not very successful last year.
Currently, the agency is looking into Google for any possible antitrust violations committed by them. Facebook will also be subjected to regular audits that will look into its user's privacy policies for the next 20 years. The agency also intends to look into how aggressively the commission will take on Web companies in the second Obama administration.
"Now that the election is over, Silicon Valley companies each are thinking through their strategy for the second Obama administration," said Peter Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University and a former White House privacy official. "The FTC will have a new Democratic chairman. A priority for tech companies will be to discern the new chair's own priorities."
Facebook already faced a privacy public outcry in December, when a press release from its subsidiary, Instagram stated that it would be selling pictures of users posted on the website to advertisers. The message was then explained to be misunderstood and the misunderstandings were cleared. However, this was a clear sign of how consumers feel about their privacy.
"Yes, the industry managed to hold off privacy legislation this year," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "But if the end-of-year protests over the Facebook and Instagram changes are any indication, users will be pressing for better privacy protections in the next Congress."
