Facebook is pleased that the Canadian Federal
Privacy Commissioner has dismissed most of the inaccurate claims brought by
CIPPIC, and that we were able to collaboratively resolve other issues raised
in the complaint.
The Commissioner also recognised, as we do, that privacy and user control
on the social web is a new area, which requires websites, users and data
protection authorities to work together. Without question, Facebook and the
Canadian Privacy Commissioner’s Office share the common goal of making the
Internet more privacy friendly for Canadians and users across the world.
We are also pleased that the Commission has recognized the fact that
Facebook provides significantly greater protection of users’ interests than
most websites and commended Facebook for providing its users with extensive
privacy settings. Facebook has made privacy a core part of its business, and
is the industry leader in developing and deploying privacy tools and
advocating their use. We believe that the very reason Facebook is popular in
Canada is because the site offers people a way to share information, enables
them to chose what information they share with whom, and is very easy to use.
As part of our continued leadership in developing privacy tools that
advance user control over their information, Facebook will soon be introducing
a number of new additional privacy features to its service that we believe
will keep the site at the forefront of user privacy and address any remaining
concerns the Commission may have. In the meantime, 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.
