The largest social media site, Facebook has got into a privacy tangle in Canada. The Canadian privacy commission report released on Thursday says that Facebook breaches its privacy laws.
According to the report, Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart at a press conference in Ottawa accused Facebook of retaining user information after uses have closed their accounts.
Facebook Canada has around 12 million , which equates to 1/3 of the population; Canada’s privacy commission expressed “an overarching concern” that Facebook’s privacy information displayed to users is “often confusing or incomplete.” Other criticisms were targeted at Facebook’s apps program: the report says too much private data is provided to 3rd party developers.
The report claims that Facebook’s retention of data from deactivated accounts violates the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
Facebook has been given 30 days to implement the changes, and has already agreed to “most” of them. According to the release, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly is quoted in an AFP report on the issue as saying “We continue our dialogue and have every confidence that we will come to acceptable conclusions. I think the concerns are fully resolvable.”
20 comments
Facebook is big in Canada with 12 million users
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Good to know that Canada is taking a stand on this one. I just recently learned that facebook’s got its own version of AdWords so the more information they have about a user, I guess the more they can provide better ad placement for their advertisers.
One has to ask why facebook waited this long (until Canada took up the fight) when they already know that their TOS is flawed. Just my two cents.
Facebook wants to play Big Daddy here by retaining all the info they can about their users…I am glad Canada has taken this up. Every country should take up privacy violation issues against Facebook.
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No wonder why Facebook is Number one. it has a lot of benefits to give on its members. Marketing, Promotional, Gaining Infos, Games for fun and many more apps to use on it.
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This is great stuff from canada and every contries should take up against such issues.
Interesting post. I did not know Canada has such a large number of facebook users. I have never tried deleting an account, and facebook should have paid more attention to this informatin privacy issue.
That is very interesting I had no idea that face book keeps all info even after the close of an account. Makes me wonder why face book would want to keep personal info I can’t think of anything un spammy they could do with it.
Oh, Canada! You would only assume that they would be the ones bitching about Facebook, when the rest of the world doesn’t have a problem with it. Maybe Canada just need some press time?
Interesting stuff, Facebook needs to make sure they respect all privacy laws because anything they don’t obey will definitely be found out
Its should be implemented every where then only we control the things easily.
Canadian Privacy Commissioner has right.
Sites like Facebook have large and valuable data about users.
They should not be used without permission from their owners, especially when they close their accounts.
Good to see that Nice initiative by face book …They need to come up wit the solutions ..
It’s great that both parties are working together to resolve all the concerns. With their teamwork and cooperation, hopefully all the concerns will be fixed as soon as possible. Thanks!
Glad to know such tremendous figure showing great success and popularity of face book in Canada.It is really needed.
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I think it is a good social networking by facebook but tell me, How can I break my Facebook addiction of impressing people and acquiring many friends?
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Just try & delete your facebook account…ain’t easy! Now on the issue of third party apps having access toa ll your information – I friggin well hate that, and as a consequence do not opt into any of these silly apps or games.
Canada should leave facebook alone. It’s a site that’s accessible from any country.
This is not the first time Facebook has been landed into controversies over privacy. They’ve been criticized many times for violating users privacy or sharing data with others. Although facebook is growing very quickly but if they have to stay for long-term in the market, they will have to make sure they value privacy and the wish of users. They do ask to users if we want to access the application or not but just wondering whether they keep some check on 3rd party developers to make sure that their users data isn’t abused? Do they?
Facebook needs to pull the reigns in on their third party apps. Granting them too much info collecting could hurt FB in the long run.
FB is a company with a bottom line like any other. They are out to make money on their adv apps and will probably monitor the collection of info given to those apps.
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