Privacy commissioner satisfied with new Facebook privacy policies
By Adnews Staff
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has reviewed the changes that Facebook made to its privacy policy last year and has concluded that the issues that placed the social networking site in non-compliance with Canadian privacy laws have been resolved. The changes limit the sharing of personal information with third-party application developers and provide users with more information about its privacy practices. "The changes Facebook has put in place in response to concerns we raised as part of our investigation last year are reasonable and meet the expectations set out under Canadian privacy law," said Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart. "However, our work with Facebook is not over. While we are satisfied that the changes address the concerns raised during our investigation, there is still room for improvement in some areas. We've asked Facebook to continue to improve its oversight of application developers and to better educate them about their privacy responsibilities. We have also cautioned Facebook against expanding the categories of user information made available to everyone on the Internet. Facebook is constantly evolving and we are actively following the changes there, as well as on other social networking sites. We will take action if we feel there are potential new violations of Canadian privacy law."