Facebook Admits to Location Tracking, Ignoring Privacy Settings

Facebook has admitted that it can determine a user's location even after the user has disabled location services. The statement came in response to a letter from Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.). Sen. Hawley tweeted: "There is no opting out. No control over your personal information. That's Big Tech. And that's why Congress needs to take action." The FTC's 2011 consent order with Facebook, followed EPIC's 2009 complaint which established that Facebook ignores user privacy settings. EPIC is challenging the proposed 2019 settlement in part because it does not fix the location tracking problem. A federal court has ordered both Facebook and the FTC to file replies to EPIC. In a related matter, an EPIC case required Accuweather to end surreptitious tracking of users.