Canada Pokes Facebook says Comply With Our Privacy Laws

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.”