Last year, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada investigated Facebook as a result of several complaints. Then the Privacy Commissioner made some recommendations, Facebook followed them, and all in all, both sides remained quite friendly. Only now another probe’s been launched, and the privacy advocate sounds less patient this time.
This investigation was prompted by another user complaint, and Assistant Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham (who led the original inquiry) explained in a statement, "The individual’s complaint mirrors some of the concerns that our Office has heard and expressed to Facebook in recent months."
Apparently the complaint came as a result of the reworked privacy controls that Facebook introduced not too long ago. As more than a few bloggers noticed, Facebook’s recommended settings would in certain cases cause users to share more information than they had in the past.
Facebook may not have too much to fear, however. As we noted in June of last year, Canada’s privacy commissioner is only able to make recommendations, and not collect fines or create laws.
Plus, since the privacy controls changeover is pretty well in the past, it’s hard to see any point in making a fuss over it now.
Anyway, according to the official statement, "The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada will investigate the complaint it has received, while continuing to follow up with Facebook as it introduces new changes to its site."
Facebook hasn’t yet responded to the new development.
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