17 July 2009 | Author: O. Gaywood Media Optimiser

Facebook hit by Canadian privacy law

Following a complaint made by students from the University of Ottawa at the beginning of June, Facebook has been criticised by a new report looking into its privacy settings.

The report - headed by Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart - says that Facebook is breaching Canadian law by holding personal information of its users indefinitely, even if they have cancelled their account with the site. Canadian law states that organisations must only keep personal information for as long as it is necessary to meet appropriate purposes.

Facebook was also accused of giving "confusing or incomplete" information to its subscribers on privacy issues and also criticised for granting developers of applications so much access to users' data.

Facebook's chief privacy officer Chris Kelly said: "Overall, we are looking for practical solutions that operate at scale and respect the fact that people come to share and not to hide.

"We continue our dialogue and have every confidence that we will come to acceptable conclusions. I think the concerns are fully resolvable."

Jennifer Stoddart said she would look at the progress made in 30 days' time and, if need be, she can take the case to a federal court to have her recommendations enforced.

Of Facebook's 250million global users, 12m are in Canada - around a third of the country's population.