Canada’s privacy czar will launch a fresh investigation into Facebook’s privacy controls, after complaints that recent changes make it more difficult to protect personal information.
It was Canada’s privacy czar, Jennifer Stoddart, who forced Facebook to agree to better protect users’ personal information last year, and the new investigation will look at complaints that new default settings make information more readily available than they were previously.
“Some Facebook users are disappointed by certain changes being made to the site – changes that were supposed to strengthen their privacy and the protection of their personal information,” says Elizabeth Denham, the assistant privacy commissioner who spearheaded last year’s investigation.
Some Facebook users are disappointed by certain changes being made to the site – changes that were supposed to strengthen their privacy
Facebook claims it’s confident the changes are transparent and within the law, adding its education campaign around the changes was unprecedented in its scope.
“Any recommended changes to a user’s privacy settings were clearly shown to the user repeatedly and were not implemented until the user accepted these changes,” says Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt.
“In addition, users were required to review the final settings after any changes and pointed to where they could reverse or further customise their settings.”
Stoddart’s office claims changes have sparked criticism from users who feel personal information is sometimes “even more exposed now than before.”
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