FTC accuses Jerk.com of using Facebook info to label people ''jerks''

The US Federal Trade Commission, in charges filed yesterday, has accused the operators of Jerk.com of creating profiles for millions of people, including children, using information that they had taken from Facebook between 2009 and 2013.

The profiles, supposedly created by users of the site, labelled people a "Jerk" or "Not a Jerk" and the site falsely claimed according to the FTC - that the subjects could edit their profiles if they paid a $30 membership fee.

The complaint said the site operators created over 73 million profiles with Facebook information, some of which had been posted as private. The material also contained intimate images such as parents bathing their young children and a mother breast-feeding. According to the site, many users who paid to join the site received nothing in return.

Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in today's interconnected world, people were especially concerned about their reputation online, and the deceptive scheme was a brazen attempt to exploit those concerns, CNN reported.

According to CNN, Jerk.com did not offer any response to a message seeking comment, but in a document from last year which sought dismissal of the case, Maria Crimi Speth called the government's case against the site a "fishing expedition."

The site is owned by Napster co-founder John Fanning, Boston.com reported

According to Boston.com, administrators for the company told the site yesterday that the information the website obtained from Facebook was publicly available.

''We were equally horrified to discover that Facebook is placing personal information from its users, including name and photographs in the public domain without requiring any agreement to its terms of service where anyone can acquire it,'' said an emailed statement from support@jerk.com. ''Most users don't know this is happening.''

''It's certainly about time that the FTC finally agrees with us and will clamp down on Facebook for what is clearly an unfair and deceptive practice that the Facebook founder has been exploiting for a very long time,'' the statement added.

Last year, Speth had filed a petition seeking quashing of the investigation on grounds that the information posted to the Jerk.com was publicly available or user generated and that the company would field requests to remove profiles for a fee. The company could, however, not be able to guarantee that taking down content would remove it entirely from the internet.

Jerk.com, however, finally lost the appeal to stop the FTC probe.