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Mike
Harvey
San Francisco, August 29, 2009 - Facebook, the world's largest online
social network, has bowed to pressure and agreed to tighten up its
privacy policies further.
The company will give its 250 million users more control over the
personal information they share with third-party applications such as
games and quizzes and will clarify what happens to data when a user
deactivates an account.
Currently people who wish to use such third-party software have to agree
to share all their personal details with the application. With the
changes, the application developer will have to specify which categories
of data the software needs, for instance birthdays or geographic
location, so users can give explicit permission. Users will also have to
specifically approve any access Facebook applications have to their
friends' information. Such access would still be subject to the friend's
privacy and application settings.
The changes will have significant implications for software developers
who have built profitable businesses creating applications for Facebook
users. They will need to update their software to comply with the new
standards. Facebook said the changes would take up to a year to
implement.
The move is in response to Canadian privacy complaints. Last month
Canada's privacy commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, accused Facebook of
disclosing personal information about users to the nearly 1 million
third-party developers worldwide who create Facebook applications.
Facebook has struggled with communicating its privacy policies to its
rapidly growing number of account-holders. Privacy has been a central,
often thorny issue because so many people use it to share personal
information with their friends and family. As the 5-year-old social
networking service has expanded its user base and added features, its
privacy controls have grown increasingly complicated.
The company said today that users who want to quit the service have a
choice between deactivating their account — in which case the personal
details, photos and other information are retained — and deleting the
account — in which case all data is erased within a short space of time.
Elliot Schrage, vice president of global communications and public
policy at Facebook, said that the changes set a new standard for the
social networking industry. The company said that it would actively
encourage users to review their privacy settings to ensure that the
defaults and selections reflect the user’s preferences.
He said: “Our productive and constructive dialogue with the
commissioner’s office has given us an opportunity to improve our
policies and practices in a way that will provide even greater
transparency and control for Facebook users."
Source: Times Online, August 27, 2009
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