Facebook may find themselves the focus of yet another online privacy scandal. This time it has to do with the social network’s relationship with Datalogix – a Colorado-based marketing firm that claims to have information about “almost every U.S. household.”

The Electronic Privacy Information Center Says Datalogix-Facebook Friendship Violates An Online Privacy Settlement

The Electronic Privacy Information Center made a public announcement this week about their belief that the Menlo Park crew is improperly sharing personally identifiable information with the high-tech marketing outfit and they’re asking the FTC to open an investigation. What makes this possible online breach even more concerting to the Electronic Privacy Information Center is that Facebook recently settled a multi-million dollar online privacy lawsuit and vowed never to share data above and beyond a user’s privacy settings.

Will Another Online Privacy Scandal Shake Facebook Irreparably?

Online privacy is something which the average individual is a) learning more about and b) fretting more about. If it’s found out that Facebook is improperly sharing information with Datalogix, their stock could take yet another tumble. And let’s face it, netizens can be a finicky bunch, if the hive mind feels that Facebook is playing fast and loose with their data, Facebook may go the way of U-connect.

Zuckerberg’s crew has managed to escape relatively unscathed from a previous online privacy debacle, but can they do it again?

The Electronic Privacy Information Center’s call for action comes in the midst of news that Facebook scaled back some of their more advanced technologies in Europe, like face recognition, since it violates the European Commission’s stricter online privacy standards.

The Future Of Online Privacy Legislation In The United States

Moving forward, it will be interesting to see which way popular opinion leans on the question of online privacy. Has the “everything should be open” philosophy of Facebook’s founder caught on? Or are people becoming more concerned with privacy as government distrust and cyber-criminality is on the rise? Are the younger generations so accustomed to sharing their lives online that all the government really has to do is stall on an online privacy bill a little longer until a larger percentage of the electorate lose interest in the topic?

But for right now, politicians are more concerned with election machinations, but expect the question of online privacy to be a hot one once the pageantry of campaign time is behind us. And believe it or not, whichever side wins may not make a hill of beans in terms of which way the vote will go if a universal online privacy law is up for consideration.