The Canadian privacy commissioner has accused social networking site Facebook of breaking a Canadian privacy law by keeping information of users even after they have closed their accounts.
Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has released a report that also says Facebook disclosed information about users to almost one million developers who create applications for the site.
The report says Facebook did not introduce proper initiatives for protecting users’ personal information from these developers.
“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 said in a statement.
Stoddart said more transparency must be introduced for Canada’s 12 million Facebook users, while she will review Facebook’s actions after 30 days to determine their progress.
Facebook has said it will work with the commissioner in order to raise awareness about its security and privacy controls.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
