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Facebook Faces the Canadian Privacy Commissioner
dakohli writes "Canwest's Sarah Schmidt writes that Facebook has until Monday to find a way to fix its 'serious privacy gaps.' And if the Canadian Privacy Commissioner isn't happy with the Web Company's response, then she has two weeks to push it to the Canadian Federal Court in Ottawa. 'A spokeswoman for the commission said it's premature to say whether the feud will end up in court. This would be an international first for Facebook, which has grown to more than 200 million users since its launch in 2004.'"
I'm sure they just have to give them a little under the table campaign contribution and everything will be find and dandy. Pass the golden maple syrup, eh?
At least one country is going to try to close this massive loophole of never destroying a user's information when they want to remove their account. I mean I can understand that being able to just "deactivate" an account is useful when a user just wants to stop using facebook for a while but how hard is it to have a remove feature that deletes a users information?
Keep your private information private by not posting it on Facebook!
That one phrase is one of the most interesting and most insulting that can be used. Void where prohibited is the same as saying we're not sure where a judge will rule this illegal, but in case they do, you lose. Why not be user friendly (anyone remember that phrase?) and say what laws you ARE in compliance with, perhaps listing a reference to your licensing documents? Even lawyers are prohibited from practicing law in regions they are not licensed for. Yes, I realize that the WWW is not quite the same thing, but in the EULA you should mention all the regions where it is legal and above board since the L in EULA stands for license. As a user, if you don't know where you are in compliance, how the hell am I supposed to know? While 'buyer beware' always applies, in this day and age, it's not unreasonable to expect that a service list where it is in compliance with privacy laws in their privacy statement.
As far as Facebook users should be concerned, if the government of Canada thinks there are privacy violations, there are... at least until Facebook clears the matter up unequivocally and publicly. After all, how can I in good faith sign or accept a EULA if I cannot be sure your service is in compliance with the applicable laws? DING That is to say that EULAs are wrong from word one, but staying on point, if there is to be one, shouldn't the burden be on the provider to show what privacy laws they are in compliance with?
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Nobody has to do it. This is just how the world works. You figure out what to do when/if somebody finds a problem/some non-compliance. The internet is such a different beast that you simply cannot (it's both a time and money issue) be assured of compliance. We tacitly accept this by using the internet. Throw in the fact that there are no reliable ways to find locations, and you really see the world the internet creates.
Also, your portrayal of the lawyers is kind of ridiculous. Lawyers aren't being lazy. These companies do not have unlimited budgets. So because there are no clean solutions (laws change all the time, all over the world), you have to hedge your bets a bit.
Finally, the casual user is the same person who makes Joe'sWebsite.com. You cannot hold corporations to a different standard, and these corporations have the same potential reach as the casual site owner: each jurisdiction in the world. And, believe me, just because you're a lawyer does not mean you have all the law down. Most lawyers never have even 1% of the law down. There's just too much of it. You're presented with problems (as a litigator) and you advocate. Or, if a transactional lawyer, you try to foresee problems, account for them, and then hedge your bets with some catchall language (which doesn't always work, mind you).
Yeah, that sure makes sense given that Canada has the highest per-capita Facebook usage in the world. How nice of you to think it acceptable just to cut off Canadians. What a fucking asshole. You know, we would really appreciate a way to solve this without just banning us from the service.
I don't think the EULA is particularly significant compared to their violations of Canadian copyright law. To throw up an unjust comparison: You can host child porn behind a strict EULA all you want, but they'll still toss in you in jail.
More importantly to Canada, it means roughly a third of the entire country is on Facebook. That's getting into the realm of national security concerns when detailed information that much of your population resides in a foreign country.
Anyone that would express, in public no less, such a statement is inherently less important by whichever ignorant metric a person like you would measure such things.
They do business with people within those nations, but are not actually situated within those nations, unless of course they have some headquarters in that nation (or locality).
The principle here that applies to facebook also applies to Joe Normals' personal website where he allows people to post comments or perhaps even has his own message board. As he is collecting and storing user information, he, as per the parent's suggestion, as the obligation to go through each and every legal district in the world (as anyolne can visit his website). It doesn't matter if he's a commercial entity or not; the concerns behind privacy violations are still the exact same.
The only other solution is, of course, to restrict websites only to nations or localities where the legality of the website can be ensured. Is this how you want the internet to look? Sounds like a great way to censor oppressed peoples...! After all, I suppose there's a lot of people trying to say *illegal* things about the Iranian government (from within)...! I suppose when search engines are asked by oppressive foreign governments like the Chinese for information on what users have done or posted with them, it's a GOOD THING they are complying with the local laws--they are, after all, doing business with them, no?
There's a strange premise behind all this, and that's that *FACEBOOK* should be responsible. Why not shift the onus on Canadian citizens so only they can go to websites with government-approved "privacy" schemes, with penalties or fines for citizens that do not comply. That's very progressive, right? Social responsibility? Yes? No?
If you put the burden of websites to be compliant with every law in the world, it is going to be very difficult for small sites and startups.
They do business with people within those nations, but are not actually situated within those nations, unless of course they have some headquarters in that nation (or locality).
No. They don't need to headquarters in a nation. They don't even need a branch office. They don't need any staff at all. They only need to have a "presence".
So what is a "presence"?
Pretty much anything that is selling OR promoting your product or service in Canada would count -- "doing business in Canada".
Facebook in particular has deals with the major wireless carriers to promote 'facebook on your mobile phone', and that would qualify it having a Canadian presence. It is actively doing business in Canada.
But Joe Average American running a blog, per your example, is merely accessible from Canada, and he and his site don't have any Canadian presence.
Now if facebook doesn't actually have any offices or staff in Canada, there's not really much that the Canadian government can do directly to them, even if they are deemed to have a presence. But it can go after facebooks canadian partners (such as the aforementioned wireless carriers) and force them to cease dealing with facebook which gives them some limited leverage over facebook insofar as they can make it so that if facebook wants to continue running promotions in Canada, and have its 'app' and 'bookmarks' and whatnot preloaded on phones then it has to meet whatever laws are in place.
Meanwhile they would have zero leverage over your example Joe Average American blogger, who couldn't care what the Canadian governement does in Canada.
I disagree. As a provider, you provide one, or at least a limited amount of services. You can target your research. There is no way a user coudl possiblly find the physical time required to research evertyhing they may need in their lives. And not all uses would have the savvy to research it. A provider of service should know which laws they are in compliance with from the start. That's what they provide, what they do. So they should know at least one jurisdiction in which they are in compliance. And if you're not from there, then you might look it up if you are still interested in the service (as a user).
An EULA is a contract, and the first rule of contracts is that they cannot constitute anything illegal. You may sign a contract giving a third party full permission to murder you, but since murder is illegal, a jury will still convict said third party.
"I'm a humble person really,
I'm actually much greater than I think I am"