Facebook has come to a settlement with the US FTC regarding complaints of its disregard for its user’s privacy. The settlement came about on Tuesday and requires that facebook should take consent from its users before making any changes in the privacy settings. Also it subjects facebook to independent audits for a period of 20 years. Facebook has agreed to take measures to protect its 800 million users in a better way.

It is said that the deal comes at a time when Facebook is all geared up for a great public offering next year worth USD 10 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook admitted to making certain mistakes in the company’s official blog. He also said that the company now has two positions for corporate privacy officer who will look into the the products and policy of Facebook.

Earlier, in its complaint FTC has said that time and again Facebook has violated various laws regarding unfair practices. For example- though Facebook assures the users that their personal information will not be shared but still it shared this information.

Also in December 2009, when certain changes were made, the users were not informed that this would result in making some of their personal information (like the friend list) public. Facebook was also criticized for using its facial recognition technology for identifying those people who had their photos in the shared category.

Though the settlement doesn’t say anything about the facial recognition technology but Senator Al Franken is hopeful that the issue would be addressed soon.