Facebook to do about-face on privacy

Canada’s privacy commissioner is expected to announce today that an agreement has been reached with Facebook to beef up privacy protocols on the social networking site.

Jennifer Stoddart ruled last month that some Facebook practices contravene Canada’s private-sector privacy act. She gave Facebook 30 days to come up with a plan or face court action by Monday requiring it to change its business practices to comply with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

Stoddart is expected to release a list of undertakings submitted by California-based Facebook to which she has agreed to avert court action.

Such a court proceeding over a privacy feud would have been an international first for Facebook, which has grown to more than 200 million users since its launch in 2004.

University of Ottawa law professor and Internet specialist Michael Geist said if the announcement is made as expected, it “does provide a pretty resounding response to the critics” who have questioned the powers of the privacy commissioner and the effectiveness of Canada’s privacy laws.

“It serves as an effective reminder when push comes to shove, the privacy commissioner has legal powers and that there simply isn’t a truly reputable company out there that would want to have a finding like this against them, much less a court decision out there. So, clearly, in the month that intervened, I’m going to guess that Facebook was willing to move to address some of those concerns,” said Geist. – Ottawacitizen

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