Summary:
On May 31, 2008, Canada's federal privacy commissioner launched an investigation into Facebook after four students complained that the popular social media network violated Canadian law by disclosing personal information to advertisers without proper consent. The Canadian law mandates that sensitive information such as a person's address, sexual preference ,birth date and school cannot be disclosed without gaining the individual's express consent. However, on Facebook the users must specifically change their settings to keep that information private.
Allegations:
- The University of Ottawa law students alleged in their complaint lodged against Facebook that the social networking site had committed 22 violations of the law.
- The complaint launched against Facebook by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) comprised 24 allegations ranging over 12 distinct subjects which included default privacy settings, collection and use of users’ personal information for advertising purposes, disclosure of users’ personal information to third-party application developers, and collection and use of non-users’ personal information.
Defence:
- Facebook denied the students' claims, with Facebook chief privacy officer Chris Kelly saying, "We've reviewed the complaint and found it has serious factual errors—most notably its neglect of the fact that almost all Facebook data is willingly shared by users."
- On four subjects, Facebook was found to be in contravention of the Act. These allegations were well-founded and resolved on the basis of the corrective measures proposed by Facebook in response to the Assistant Commissioner's recommendations.
- Kelly said Facebook has worked with Ontario's privacy commissioner to create a brochure and video to educate users about the site's privacy controls.