After Canadian Prodding, Facebook To Change Privacy Policy

Retardical_Sam writes "Facebook has agreed to make changes to protect users' personal information on the social networking site, including the way data is accessed by third-party developers, Canada's privacy commissioner said Thursday. Canadian officials have been negotiating with Facebook since the Office of the Privacy Commissioner released a report a month ago that argued the social network breaches Canadian privacy law. Facebook agreed to make changes dealing with third-party applications like quizzes and games, deactivation of accounts, the personal identification of non-users and accounts of users who die."

Permanent Deletion? Maybe?

[meheler]

Maybe now I can finally tell them to permanently delete my account from the databases. Maybe? I hope so..

But I like it this way!

[JoshuaZ]

I like broadcasting all my personal info to all sorts of commercial interests. I like being exploited by the large faceless company.

Joking aside, I suspect this will have very little in the way of practical change. For example, according to TFA the changes will among other things "Prevent games, quizzes and other applications developed by third parties from accessing information until it obtains express consent for each category of personal information." Most users aren't going to think hard about this and will simply click through repeatedly. People almost never bother reading warnings or paying much attention to them. Technological change can't do much to deal with a population that either doesn't understand or doesn't care how vulnerable it is.

Re:Permanent Deletion? Maybe?

[RobVB]

The problem is that they've allowed third party developers to access your information, so their database probably isn't the only database that has your information anymore.

Re:But I like it this way!

[minsk]

Most users aren't going to think hard about this and will simply click through repeatedly.

That's my suspicion. However, the ability to run applications without compromising your own privacy might encourage some of us paranoid technical folks to stop avoiding them.

Anyone who is bothered by access from third-party applications installed by friends/network/etc either has already, or should have after the publicity, simply disabled it.

RFID too

[Maury Markowitz]

Another issue the privacy commissioner is dealing with will likely bring a smile to the /.'s here: the absolute pants security of RFID systems in travel documents.

The problem came to a head because the DHS in the states demanded that border-crossing documents have RFID devices with biometrics in them. We used to be able to use our driver's licenses, but now we need a passport. They wanted that flexibility back, because it's so much less hassle to get a license than a passport, so the Ontario DOT agreed to add the RFID to the new driver's licenses. It's going to be phased in, but unless you want the rubber-glove treatment, you'll want one sooner rather than later.

Everyone's been complaining about the security of these systems, but it fell on deaf ears. Until the Ontario commissioner got involved, that is. After brick-walling against the DHS she then got the Ontario DOT to issue RFID-proof wrappers with the cards. She admits they're less than ideal, thought.

The longer term solution that she wants to implement is a portion of the card that acts as a capacitive switch, only turning on the RFID when you hold it. They'll put one on the corner of the card, with a little graphic saying "hold here while reading". When it's in your pocket the RFID will be dead, so surreptitious scanning is difficult, or impossible. I thought this was a particularly elegant solution.

Re:Let the negotians commence!

[theshowmecanuck]

Canadian elections don't have to happen for up to five years. An indication that you don't like to think deeply about answers. :) Canada constitutes about 12 million facebook users. Not huge given that they have around a quarter billion users world wide, or so it is reported here in Canada. However it is enough to make a big enough dent in their profits so that change is easier than cutting off Canada from their services. Similar to how California, while having around 37 million people out of 330 million in the U.S. can still significantly influence products sold to all of the U.S. A good example is when they enact legislation mandating specific changes to say, car safety features, the auto makers don't stop selling to California. It is a big enough market that the car makers make the changes, since they are cheaper than not selling to California. It is the only reason that many safety and environmental changes made with respect to autos have been made in the U.S. Wow, a legit car example!

Re:When pigs fly

[wsanders]

Your information will only be visible by your friends, they fixed that. Except your picture will appear in *their* spam ads for penis enlargements and credit scams.

I don't do any Facebooks apps, and won't until their privacy settings are more fine grained than "yes" and "no".

Re:When pigs fly

[theshowmecanuck]

The way it is being reported on the TV news channels in Canada is that this is more of an informational change than a change in what facebook does (or what its third party apps do). That is, the changes from what it sounds like are more along the lines of making sure the users are better informed on where all your personal information, and that of your friends, etc is being sent, who is going to look at it and mine it and dice and slice it and use it and ... you get the picture. It doesn't sound like they are being told to stop doing anything. An example is that facebook will have to explicitly tell you that when you deactivate your account, your info doesn't go anywhere and is still retained on the facebook servers (and it doesn't mean they will show you porn or curse at you when you deactivate your account :) ). Stuff like that.