Watchdog: Facebook violates Canadian privacy law

(AP) -- Canada's privacy commissioner says the online social networking site Facebook breaches Canadian law by keeping users personal information indefinitely after members close their accounts.

Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart released a report Thursday that also accuses Facebook of disclosing users personal information to developers who make software for the site and of collecting personal information of nonusers.

She says the account settings page describes how to deactivate accounts but not how to remove personal data from Facebook's computer servers. She wants Facebook to remove personal data in deactivated accounts.

Stoddart gave Facebook a month to respond.

The commissioner could ask the Federal Court of Canada to have her recommendations enforced.

Facebook issued a statement reiterating it was working on new privacy features.

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