Canadian Privacy Commissioner Finds Flaws with Facebook

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada today released a report that found that the popular social networking site Facebook needs to improve many of its privacy practices to comply more fully with Canadian law.

The report concludes an investigation by the Commissioner that was prompted by a complaint from the Ottawa-based Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.

Close to 12 million Canadians have accounts with the site.

The report found that:

• Facebook information about privacy settings was often confusing or incomplete
• there were many concerns around the sharing of users’ personal information with third-party developers creating Facebook applications such as games and quizzes
  
• the site indefinitely keeps the personal information of people who have deactivated their accounts – a violation of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Canada’s private-sector privacy law

According to the report, Facebook has agreed to adopt many of the Commissioner's recommendations or has proposed reasonable alternatives to the measures recommended. However, it has not yet agreed to implement all of the recommendations.