(ip-192.com): Facebook is not doing enough to protect the personal information it gets from subscribers, and it gives users confusing and incomplete information about privacy matters, according to Canada's privacy commissioner.
"It's clear that privacy issues are top of mind for Facebook, and yet we found serious privacy gaps in the way the site operates," Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said in a report on an investigation into Facebook.
The report states Facebook violates Canada's privacy laws by keeping the personal information of people who have deactivated their accounts in its databases indefinitely.
The social networking service provides confusing information about privacy practices, so Stoddart, for example showing users how to deactivate accounts but not how to delete them.
Facebook told the commissioner it needed to keep personal data for those who shut down accounts because about half of users reactivate accounts that they had deactivated.
Facebook has currently about 200 million active users, including about 12 million in Canada.
The report will set a precedent for other networking sites operating in Canada, and could influence practice in other countries. Stoddart said she believed Canada was the first to publish a formal privacy investigation of Facebook's practices.
The report continues saying that Facebook lacked adequate safeguards to prevent unauthorized access to users' personal information by third-party developers. There are more than 950,000 developers in 180 countries.
Recent Comments