Canadians file complaint against Facebook

Accused of massive privacy breach

2 June 2008 11:13 GMT / By Katie Scott

Facebook may have been winning praise in this country for adding protection for kids, but a group in Canada says that the social networking site is not doing enough.

In fact, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic has filed a complaint against the site listing what it claims are 22 separate breaches of privacy law.

The complaint has now been filed with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

It says that Facebook collects sensitive information about its subscribers and shares it without their permission.

It adds that Facebook does not tell users how their personal information is being used nor does it delete this information properly after a Facebooker leaves the site.

The group targeted Facebook as the most popular social networking site in Canada, and because of its appeal to teengers, but is planning on going after other sites when it has the "time and resources".

The 35-page report pointed to issues with the website's privacy settings, targeted advertising practices and the third party applications.

Facebook has responded stating: "We pride ourselves on the industry leading controls we offer users over their private information. We believe that this is an important reason that nearly 40% of Canadians on the internet use our service".

"We've reviewed the complaint and found it has serious factual errors, most notably its neglect of the fact that almost all Facebook data is willingly shared by users."

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