Even as the agency has been implementing the settlement and oversight agreements with Google and Facebook, consumer advocates continue to sound alarms about how those companies and others treat their users' data, which in turn enables them and their advertising partners to serve more precisely targeted, relevant ads. Most recently, Google caused a stir when it announced that it would consolidate the privacy policies of its disparate Web properties into a single system, a move the company defended for simplifying the privacy landscape, but one that critics blasted for seeming to limit users' control of their information.

Kenneth Corbin is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who covers government and regulatory issues for .