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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.'"
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?
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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The Privacy Commissioner is an officer of parliament (who reports directly to the Senate and the House of Commons), not an official of the Government of Canada.
Atheism is a religion to the same extent that not collecting stamps is a hobby.
The only way to do that is never use facebook at all, perhaps the solution I should adopt myself, but it's a bit too late.
The problem I have been having is what other people in my network post about me. I have no control over that and no right to demand it be removed other than politely asking but most people dont listen to such requests because they dont understand why someone might care. Apart from being tagged in numerous photos most of the events i go to are listed as having me invited regardless of the fact I never read the invites.
Basically from a careful computer aided study of facebook you can find out for the average user:
A 3d model of their whole body with especially detailed facial features
Their location a percentage of the time without variable certainty
A fairly accurate weighted graph of most of their associates and friends (plus all the listed information about those people)
A rough idea of their habits, personality and political leaning
I am no privacy nut but this is more information than i want about me on the web. I think people fail to understand how much can be extrapolated from a massive database of small details.