• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, July 16, 2009

Facebook's recent move to give members more control over who can see information they post doesn't go far enough to protect users' privacy, according to a new report by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner.

The report, released Thursday by Canadian official Jennifer Stoddart, found fault with Facebook's practice of allowing nearly 1 million third-party developers to access information about members and their friends. "Facebook does not have adequate safeguards in place to prevent unauthorized access to users' personal information by application developers," the report stated.

Stoddard recommended that Facebook impose new restrictions on developers, including limiting their ability to access information that isn't required for the applications to run, and to ban any disclosure of information about users who aren't themselves adding the app.

The Canadian privacy commissioner also criticized Facebook for retaining information after users had deactivated their accounts. While Facebook allows users to completely delete their data, some members simply deactivate their accounts instead. Stoddart recommended that Facebook expunge deactivated accounts after "a reasonable length of time."

Facebook said in a statement that it will soon introduce additional privacy features. "We will also continue our efforts to work with the Canadian Federal Privacy Commissioner to address the outstanding areas highlighted in the report and will continue our efforts to raise awareness of the privacy controls on Facebook," the company stated.

The report was spurred by a complaint filed last year by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. That group asked the authorities to probe whether Facebook was violating a Canadian law that limits companies' ability to collect information about consumers.

The U.S. doesn't have a similar law, but privacy regulations in other countries influence how Web companies operate in the U.S. For example, some search engines agreed to slash the length of time they retain IP logs after European officials complained that companies were keeping such data for too long. Additionally, Facebook's new privacy features, including one that lets members easily control who else can view their updates, came about after talks with Canadian officials, among others.