Facebook Violates Canadian Laws
Canada Puts Social Media Networking Policies Under the Microscope
Jul 28, 2009
On May 30, 2008, Philippa Lawson and five law students on behalf of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), sent Jennifer Stoddart, Canada's Privacy Commissioner, a detailed letter explaining their concerns that Facebook is in violation of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Over the course of one year,The Canadian Privacy Commission investigated all eleven concerns addressed by CIPPIC. Their investigation discovered that Facebook is breaching Canadian laws.
The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic is based at the University of Ottawa in the Faculty of Law and they seek to ensure a balance in policy and law-making processes on issues that stem from new technologies. Law students work with lawyers on cases that involve the crossroads of law, technology and public interest.
CIPPIC's concerns included:
- Explaining policies and procedures on the range of personal information that is disclosed to third party advertisers.
- Ensuring that those who deactivate their account also withdraw their consent to their personal information being shared.
- Destroy all personal information when a person deactivates their account.
- Safeguarding all users' personal information from unauthorized access.
- Facebook should obtain express consent to share users' sensitive information.
Facebook Background
Mark Zuckerburg founded this online social networking company in 2004 and is based in Palo Alto, California. Initially, membership to this social network was restricted to Harvard students. From there, it expanded to any university student who was recognized by the school's administration and in February 2006, membership became available to anyone with a valid e-mail address.
Today, according to statistics published in Facebook's Online Press Room, there are more than 250 million active Facebook users worldwide with 120 million of these users logging on daily. The fastest growing demographic are people over the age of 35. Other Facebook global statistics include:
- Average user has 120 friends.
- More than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook every day.
- 30 million users update their statuses at least once a day.
- More than 1 billion photos are uploaded to the site every month.
- More than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog notes, etc.) are shared each week.
- 70% of Facebook users are outside of the United States.
Canadian Privacy Commission
In a news release issued on July 16, 2009, the Commission stated that in order for Facebook to be in compliance with Canadian laws, they must take greater responsibility for the personal information they hold. In this news release Jennifer Stoddart stated, “It’s clear that privacy issues are top of mind for Facebook, and yet we found serious privacy gaps in the way the site operates.”
Stoddart gave Facebook 30 days to comply, and if they do not, under PIPEDA, the Privacy Commissioner can apply to the Federal Court of Canada to have these recommendations enforced.
A detailed report on the investigation can be found at the web site for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Take Responsibility
Ultimately, any Internet user who is at a web site that requires clicking “yes” to the terms of an agreement, need to take responsibility and read the agreement instead of scrolling down and clicking “I agree”. If there is any uncertainty about what is stated in the terms of agreement, sending an e-mail for clarification is important.
All social media networking sites have their privacy policies posted, including Facebook. It may be laborious to read all that fine print, but it is there for a reason.
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