Facebook agrees to US government privacy demands

Facebook has reached an agreement with the American Federal Trade Commission to tighten its privacy controls.

The social networking site has been locked in talks with the regulator since 2009 when it changed its settings so that it made public details users may have preferred to keep to friends and family.

It will now have to get users' permission before it makes any changes to the way it shares their data. Facebook has also agreed to close access to deleted accounts within 30 days.

In a blog post, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the company had made "a bunch of mistakes" but this shouldn't overshadow the good things that the site had done and said the company had already addressed many of the FTC's privacy concerns.

Zuckerberg continued: "Overall, I think we have a good history of providing transparency and control over who can see your information.

"That said, I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes. In particular, I think that a small number of high profile mistakes, like Beacon four years ago and poor execution as we transitioned our privacy model two years ago, have often overshadowed much of the good work we've done.

"I also understand that many people are just naturally sceptical of what it means for hundreds of millions of people to share so much personal information online, especially using any one service. Even if our record on privacy were perfect, I think many people would still rightfully question how their information was protected.

"It's important for people to think about this, and not one day goes by when I don't think about what it means for us to be the stewards of this community and their trust."