Facebook broke Canada’s privacy laws, watchdogs say

By Cormac MacSweeney, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) – Facebook is facing more heat for failing to safeguard your privacy.

The federal and B.C. privacy commissioners say the social media giant broke the law, exposing the personal information of hundreds of thousands of Canadians.

This bombshell report finds that Facebook failed to protect users’ personal information, leading to unauthorized access on data that was later used for political purposes.

The report finds major shortcomings in Facebook’s practices, and highlights the need for legislative reform to protect Canadians.

The complaint that prompted the probe followed reports that Facebook had let an outside organization use an app to access users’ personal information, and that some of the data was then shared with others, including the firm Cambridge Analytica, which was involved in U.S. political campaigns.

The app, at one point known as “This is Your Digital Life,” encouraged users to complete a personality quiz.

It collected much more information about users who installed the app as well as data about their Facebook friends.

Federal Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien says he is concerned that not only does facebook deny it broke the law, but it is refusing to follow recommendations to fix the problem.

“My office plans to take the matter to federal court to force Facebook to correct its privacy practices,” he added. “Its refusal to address the serious problems that we have identified or even acknowledge that it broke the law”

 


The report released today says about 300,000 Facebook users worldwide added the app, leading to the potential disclosure of the personal information of approximately 87 million others, including more than 600,000 Canadians.

The investigation took a year to conduct.

In a statement, Facebook says it is disappointed by the findings, there is no evidence Canadians’ data was shared with Cambridge Analytica, and the company has made dramatic improvements to protect people’s personal information.

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