Legal Research

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, which has a strong mandate to protect the privacy of Canadian citizens under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, has  determined that Facebook impermissibly discloses personal information to third-party developers of applications on Facebook.  You know what we're talking about - Birthday Alert, Scramble, Cities I've visited, Are YOU Interested? - to mention some of the more personal.  Users of these apps might be interested in knowing that there are in excess of 950,000 application developers operating in 180 countries worldwide.  

The Commissioner's determination was based on the finding that not only do application users implicitly consent to giving their own personal information to the app's developers when they add the app, but also make their "friends'" personal information available to those developers.  The only way that friends can opt out is by refusing all apps or blocking particular apps on an individual basis.  The Commissioner recommends that Facebook prohibit disclosure of the personal information of users who are not adding the app themselves, and that users of the apps be required to specifically opt in to disclosure. 

As the Commissioner's report succinctly states:  "Facebook has not agreed to the recommendations."  A question to ponder - How much personal privacy are you willing to give up in order to discover what kind of butterfly you are?

Hat tip to Info/Law.