Facebook breaches Canadian privacy law: commissioner

by CBC — July 16, 2009

Facebook shares personal information with developers who create games and quizzes in a way that breaches Canadian privacy law, the office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has found.

The office released a report Thursday on the popular social networking site found Facebook continues to breach the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act in three other ways:

• It keeps information from accounts deactivated by users indefinitely and does not make it clear that users can also choose to delete their accounts rather than just deactivate them. Nor does it explain the difference in its privacy policy.
• It keeps the profiles of deceased users for "memorial purposes," including this in its terms of use. That means users cannot opt out.
• It allows users to post personal information about non-users without their consent. For example, it allows them to tag photos and videos of non-users with their names, and provide Facebook with their email addresses to invite them to join the site. It keeps the addresses indefinitely.

Source:CBC top stories