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By Mel Duvall
Social networking site Facebook has run afoul of Canada's privacy commission, after the government body released a report Thursday that found the service has "serious privacy gaps."
Canada's privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart announced the finding after an investigation was launched into the site's privacy practices following a complaint by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, a research body at the University of Ottawa.
In a statement, Stoddard said Facebook had failed to respond to four "well-founded" allegations about its privacy practices. The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic had initially filed 24 complaints in 12 areas.
The four areas the commission sided with the plaintiff were:
- Facebook's practice of allowing third-party application developers to access personal information of Facebook users. Facebook allows developers to provide its clients with access to such add-ons as personal fitness trackers, horoscopes, surveys, and a wide range of games. In so doing, it allows those third-party developers to access user information.
- Deactivation and deletion of accounts. Facebook does not have a policy where the personal information of deactivated account holders is deleted after a reasonable amount of time.
- The deletion of accounts of users who have died. Facebook states in its terms of usage that it retains the right to keep a deceased user's profile active for memorial purposes, however, the privacy commission found that the company should do more to make users aware of this policy and provide them with the ability to opt-out.
- The collection of personal information of non-users. It is possible for users to post personal information about non-Facebook users as well as the profiles of other users through such features as "News Feed" and "Wall". It is also possible to identify non-users by tagging photos or videos. The privacy commission recommended that Facebook implement measures to address the lack of consent, including placing a limit on the retention of non-users' email addresses.
A full copy of the report can be found here.
In statements, Facebook said that it has already implemented a number of controls to address many of the concerns in the privacy commission's report and that it would continue to work with the commission to address the remaining concerns.
The company's actions are being closely watched by other social networking sites, like MySpace and LinkedIn, as they may also find themselves under the radar of the Canadian privacy commission and similar bodies in other countries.
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