TALKING POINTS MEMO – Jan 26 – Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill spoke Tuesday morning at a cybersecurity forum in Washington D.C. and blasted both Google and Facebook for violating user privacy, saying they “learned it the hard way” not to change user privacy settings without express approval from users. In 2011, both Google and Facebook reached separate but similar agreements with the FTC to undergo 20-years of independent privacy audits. Both companies have been found guilty of violating user privacy agreements and managed to dodge fines and penalties, but have been required by the FTC to develop their own internal privacy programs, which will then be checked periodically to ensure compliance. Brill dodged questions about Google’s latest privacy policy change that will create one policy across all of its products.