HTC America, a maker of cell phones that use Android and Windows software, has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it failed to take adequate steps to eliminate security flaws that put smartphone and tablet users' data at risk, the agency said on Friday.

HTC America, a subsidiary of HTC Corp in Taiwan, made millions of phones with programming flaws that allowed third-party applications to evade Android's permission-based security model, the FTC said in a release.

The settlement requires HTC to establish a comprehensive security program and patch the software holes, the FTC said.

(Reporting By Diane Bartz)