U.S. lawmakers have asked the Federal Trade Commission whether changes to Google's privacy policy violate terms of a 20-year settlement the company reached with the agency last year. Congressmen Edward Markey and Joe Barton have called on the agency “to investigate whether Google’s proposed changes violate” a settlement made in March. At the time, the FTC claimed that the search-engine used deceptive practices and violated its own privacy guidelines. 

According to The New York Times, Facebook is close to a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding its privacy settings.  Facebook has been widely criticized for the privacy changes it made in 2009. In the changes, certain personal information, such as a person's gender and home city, was made publicly accessible.