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"There is no Federal regulation at the end of the process," reads the White House framework document promoting the creation of a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, "and codes will not bind any companies unless they choose to adopt them." This is how the Obama Administration refers to the creation of new codes of conduct for private companies that run Web sites and collect information about their users.

So if it's not a regulation, then exactly what is it that the Federal Trade Commission would be expected to enforce? If you're expecting some government agency to answer that question, you may be surprised to discover that earlier this week, the Dept. of Commerce's NTIA opened up the question to public comments. That's right - perhaps you have the answer.

You have to admit, he's getting better at this. Four years ago, in response to numerous public complaints - many of them in court - about its plans to share aggregate user data with third parties, Facebook responded in a flat, dismissive tone that users were given every opportunity to opt out of behavior sharing. So what they don't opt out of is effectively their own problem.

Today's settlement between Facebook and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission effectively ensures that the company can no longer take this specific stance without facing intense U.S. government scrutiny. But in the intervening four years, Facebook has become a veteran of government scrutiny, including from the Canadian Privacy Commissioner and throughout Europe. And it has gained a lot more skill at adapting its semantics to strike the right political and often psychological tones.