Facebook data privacy questioned by Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden
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Facebook has some explaining to do in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, according to a report.
Data protection agencies in those countries want the Palo Alto company to detail what it does with the information it collects from its more than 750 million users, according to news agency Agence France-Presse.
‘This is a common action to obtain better knowledge of how personal information is handled by the world’s largest social network,’ Hans-Olof Lindblom, the Swedish Data Inspection Board’s chief attorney, told AFP.
A list of 45 questions regarding data collection and privacy has been sent to Facebook by Norway’s data protection agency on behalf of respective authorities in the four Nordic countries, AFP said.
The questions cover what Facebook does with photos uploaded to its network, ‘the consequences of clicking the ‘like’ button to comment on posted items, and the sharing of data that can help determine a user’s name and address with third parties,’ the AFP report said.
The four nations also want to know what Facebook does with data from a user identifying religious beliefs and sexual preferences or when he or she writes on a friend’s ‘Facebook wall,’ the report said.
Facebook is being asked to respond to the 45 questions by the end of August and ‘accurately as possible, but in no more than 3-4 sentences,’ the AFP said.
‘We have for a long time had a good dialogue with Facebook’s headquarters,’ Bjoern Erik Thon of the Norwegian agency told AFP. ‘Despite the fact that Facebook is continuously working on improving information to its members, it is unclear what information Facebook collects and how this is used and passed on.’
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles