Canada's privacy body to look into Facebook 'Like' button
Canada's privacy commissioner said Wednesday that Facebook has addressed her concerns but she was opening a new probe of the sharing of the social networking site's "Like" button with other websites.
"Facebook has made several privacy improvements that will benefit its users around the globe," Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said in a statement.
"The changes Facebook has put in place in response to concerns we raised as part of our investigation last year are reasonable and meet the expectations set out under Canadian privacy law," Stoddart said.
The social network, which has more than 500 million members worldwide, had been accused of inadequately restricting outside software developers' access to personal information people put on profile pages.
Facebook has since rolled out changes whereby users must grant consent to access and use their data.
Stoddart applauded Facebook's new privacy settings.
"We're also pleased that Facebook has developed simplified privacy settings and has implemented a tool that allows users to apply a privacy setting to each photo or comment they post," she said.
"Overall, Facebook has implemented the changes it promised following our investigation," she said.
"It has been a long road in arriving at this point," she said. "These changes are the result of extensive and often intense discussions with Facebook."
However, she added, further complaints that deal with the appearance of Facebook's "Like" button on partner websites, which were not part of her original investigation, have prompted a new examination.
"We are now examining those," she said.
Facebook has partnered with a number of websites to show visitors to those sites what products, news stories or other online content their Facebook friends "Like" there.
(c) 2010 AFP
