Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/01/28/facebook_canada_privacy/

Facebook faces new privacy probe

Canucks still not happy

By John Oates

Posted in Legal, 28th January 2010 12:45 GMT

Facebook is facing a second investigation by Canadian privacy regulators over concerns that it is failing to properly protect people's data.

Last year the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada found Facebook failed to properly protect users' data, failed to properly restrict access to third parties which access the data and failed to make any of these policies clear to its users.

Since that investigation Facebook has changed many of its policies, especially around deactivation and deletion of accounts.

But the Canadian watchdog has received another complaint about the changes introduced in December.

Elizabeth Denham, assistant Privacy Commissioner, said: “The individual’s complaint mirrors some of the concerns that our Office has heard and expressed to Facebook in recent months.

"Some Facebook users are disappointed by certain changes being made to the site – changes that were supposed to strengthen their privacy and the protection of their personal information.”

The full release is here.

In August last year Facebook promised to have addressed Canadian privacy concerns within a year.

A Facebook spokeswoman said: "We have not seen the complaint but we are confident that the transition process begun more than a month ago was transparent, consistent with user expectations, and within the law. Specifically, the announcement and education campaign by Facebook around the changes was unprecedented in its scope and included a detailed preview of the changes and flows with the OPC.

"Any recommended changes to a user’s privacy settings were clearly shown to the user repeatedly and were not implemented until the user accepted these changes. In addition, users were required to review the final settings after any changes and pointed to where they could reverse or further customize their settings."®