• BBC News , Monday, June 2, 2008 11 AM

Canada's Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic accused Facebook of 22 separate breaches of privacy law late last week, claiming that the company collects and then shares information about its users without first gaining their permission or clearly explaining how it will be used. In an interview with BBC, Clinic Director Philipa Lawson said, "Facebook needs to be held publicly accountable."

The 35-page complaint was filed following an analysis in which students at the clinic studied Facebook's policies and practices as part of their coursework. They found that several of the company's practices violate the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. According to Lisa Feinberg, one of the law students behind the complaint, "Facebook promotes itself as a social utility, but it's also involved in commercial activities like targeted advertising. Facebook users need to know that when they're signing up to Facebook, they're signing up to share their information with advertisers."

For its part, Facebook said, "We've reviewed the complaint and found it has serious factual errors, most notably its neglect of the fact that almost all Facebook data is willingly shared by users...We pride ourselves on the industry leading controls we offer users over their private information." Meanwhile, Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said the clinic's next privacy analysis would be of News Corp.'s MySpace.

Read the whole story at BBC News »