Facebook has amended itsprivacy practices
and policiesto give users more control over the
information they keep on the social networking site, following a
report from theCanadian Privacy Commissioner.
The site has come under scrutiny over its privacy policy.
Earlier this month
five Facebook users in California filed a civil lawsuit against
the company alleging that it violates privacy laws and misleads
members.
The Privacy Policy has been updated to distinguish between
account deactivation and deletion, and clarify to users how
advertising programmes work.
Facebook said it would encourage users to review their privacy
settings to make sure the defaults and selections reflect the
user's preferences. It will also introduce a new permissions model
that will require applications to specify the categories of
information they wish to access. Applications will also be required
to obtain express consent from the user before any data is shared.
Facebook said the user will also have to specifically approve any
access to their friends' information, which would still be subject
to the friend's privacy and application settings.
However, the changes to how users share information with
third-party applications will require significant time and
resources, both for the updating and testing of the new Facebook
API, and for third-party application developers to reprogram and
test their applications, Facebook said. Facebook estimated that the
entire process of improving user privacy would take approximately
12 months.
A spokeswoman for Facebook, said, "We are making a series of
improvements that include notifications and information about
privacy settings and practices, additions to Facebook's privacy
policy, and technical changes designed to give people more
transparency and control over the information they provide to
third-party applications. "