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Canada privacy commissioner launches new Facebook probe

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner announced Thursday that it would launch a new probe of Facebook to investigate privacy issues in response to a recent complaint. Facebook's privacy tool, which it introduced in December, requires users to review their privacy settings. The complaint alleges that these default privacy settings "have made his information more readily available than the settings he had previously put in place." Elizabeth Denham, the assistant privacy commissioner who led last year's investigation, noted that the complaint reflected concerns currently held by the office and reported to Facebook in recent months. In August, Facebook announced that it would give users more control over the private information they share through their profiles. The changes were announced after discussions with the Canadian privacy commissioner, who in July released a report that was critical of Facebook's compliance with Canadian privacy laws. Also in August, five Facebook users filed suit in a US federal court alleging that the site violates California privacy laws. In late July, Facebook announced it had corrected a loophole whereby users could see strangers' posted photos without those individuals' knowledge. In February, Facebook, facing a federal complaint, reversed a change to its Terms of Use policy that gave Faceboook ownership of all information posted on a user's profile, even if the page were deleted.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 28, 2010 (boomark / email).