Facebook is reportedly near a settlement with federal regulators over changes to its privacy policies enacted two years ago, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission would resolve charges by privacy advocates that Facebook engaged in deceptive behavior.

The settlement would require Facebook to obtain consent from its users for "material retroactive changes," according to the Journal report on Thursday citing anonymous sources.

Facebook and the FTC have not commented on the paper's report.

In December 2009, ten privacy organizations filed a complaint against Facebook to the Federal Trade Commission, arguing that changes to the social-networking company's privacy policies and settings violated federal laws. These changes required that certain personal profile information would be viewable to everyone.