FaceBooK agrees with Canadian Concerns

Now... I know a lot of people use Facebook...

Canada has around 12million users...

Facebook is seemingly a good way to find and keep in touch with friends long forgotten or to...

umm... actually I have no idea what Facebook does or why people use it... or even what uses it has...

I just know by NOT having FaceBook, I've missed out on many parties, events, and even dates... Silly me...

Or... is that Silly YOU?

Even though I don't use any social networking thingys...

I still try to stay informed about them.

This Summer, Canada launched complaints that FaceBook violated Canadian Internet Privacy Laws.

Now... I know what you may be thinking "BiG Deal... Canadian Privacy Laws..." but consider this...

2006 and 2007 Canada ranked 2nd according to Privacy International

No worries about "BiG Brother". (o^-')b

Yearly Privacy ranking of countries published by Privacy International

Rank Country Total score 2006 2007 2006[34] 2007[35] 5 1 Greece 3.1 3.1 2 2 Canada 3.6 2.9 - 2 Romania 2.9 6 2 Hungary 3.0 2.9 6 5 Argentina 3.0 2.8 26 5 Slovenia 2.3 2.8 8 5 Portugal 2.9 2.8 13 5 Luxembourg 2.6 2.8 1 5 Germany 3.9 2.8 13 5 Italy 2.6 2.8 13 5 Estonia 2.6 2.8 - 12 Iceland 2.7 3 12 Belgium 3.2 2.7 18 14 Czech Republic 2.5 2.5 12 14 Finland 2.7 2.5 18 14 Republic of Ireland 2.5 2.5 - (14) Scotland 2.5 - 17 Switzerland 2.4 13 17 Malta 2.6 2.4 18 19 New Zealand 2.5 2.3 - 19 South Africa 2.3 8 19 Poland 2.9 2.3 24 19 Spain 2.4 2.3 3 19 Austria 3.2 2.3 8 19 Cyprus 2.9 2.3 - (19) European Union 2.3 - 25 Japan 2.2 24 25 Australia 2.4 2.2 28 25 Israel 2.2 2.2 13 25 Latvia 2.6 2.2 - 29 Brazil 2.1 - 29 Norway 2.1 26 31 Netherlands 2.3 2.1 18 31 Slovakia 2.5 2.1 28 31 Sweden 2.2 2.1 18 34 Denmark 2.5 2.0 - 34 Bulgaria 2.0 18 34 Lithuania 2.5 2.0 - 37 India 1.9 8 37 France 2.9 1.9 31 39 Philippines 1.9 1.8 30 40 United States 2.0 1.5 31 40 Thailand 1.9 1.5 31 40 Taiwan 1.9 1.5 33 43 United Kingdom 1.5 1.4 - (43) England and Wales 1.4 34 43 Singapore 1.4 1.4 34 45 Russia 1.4 1.3 36 45 Malaysia 1.3 1.3 36 45 People's Republic of China 1.3 1.3

The Privacy complaints were in regards to holding user information even after an account has been deleted and the information it shares with third party applications.

August 27th, FaceBook agreed with Canada's Privacy concerns and is working to implement changes.

With the changes, the application developer will have to specify which categories of data the software needs, so users can decide accordingly. Users who authorize an application will be able to opt out of giving certain information.

As part of Thursday's agreement, Facebook will provide users with a clearer distinction between deleting an account -- which removes all personal information from Facebook servers after two weeks -- and deactivating it, which merely stores the information in its database.

The Web site will also provide users with a better explanation of how its advertising programs work, and will change how it handles the accounts of deceased users.

Who knows? Maybe after these changes... I just might consider using FaceBook...

See full Story via Mainichi Daily

Edit: For those that DO use FaceBooK... perhaps this might be of interest?