Facebook data practices under investigation in Europe

Social networking giant Facebook faces complaints from a European group before Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner over how it manages members’ personal data. Europe v. Facebook had filed 22 complaints with the Data Protection Commissioner, claiming Facebook may have violated European privacy laws governing how firms manage personal data. A report on PC World said the complaints concern issues ranging from how Facebook deals with deleted posts and contacts, to what the group claimed to be an unclear privacy policy of Facebook. The PC World article said the group filed the complaints in Ireland because Facebook’s user agreement says that users outside the U.S. and Canada are entering into an agreement with Facebook Ireland, the company’s European headquarters. For its part, Facebook has maintained it complies with data protection laws around the world. The complaints stemmed from members of the group asking Facebook for personal data stored on them by the site. Facebook is required under European law to respond to such requests. The group published redacted data obtained by some of its supporters to show what kind information Facebook stores. Accelerated process On the other hand, the Data Protection Commissioner’s office said the complaints accelerated the investigation process, as it was already planning to audit Facebook. Ciara O’Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the office, said the Data Protection Commissioner will undertake an investigation of the complaints and also an audit of Facebook. This will involve visiting the company’s facilities in Dublin and “looking more generally at how they process personal data," O’Sullivan said. PC World reported the audit will begin in October. Facebook to 'cooperate' Facebook said it has regular contact with the Data Protection Commissioner, and “we look forward to demonstrating our commitment to the appropriate handling of user data as part of this routine audit." It addressed questions that people who requested their Facebook data found that information they thought they had deleted was still present in the file. “This is mostly likely due to the user removing a post from a specific place on Facebook rather than deleting it, or because we needed to retain information for a limited period for an investigation. We’re continuing to work on ways to make this process as seamless as possible," PC World quoted Facebook as saying. Facebook also addressed a claim that photo tags are applied without a person’s consent. In August, Facebook changed the tagging feature so that people can choose to approve a tag before the photo shows up in their own profile. Users can also adjust their privacy settings to turn off “Tag Suggestions," a feature that uses facial recognition to help a user’s Facebook friends to automatically identify and tag the user in their photos. But data protection officials in Germany do not believe that feature complies with the law. Hamburg’s Data Protection Agency (DPA) contends that Facebook should obtain users’ consent before their biometric data, used to enable the tagging feature, is stored. — TJD, GMA News