Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has admitted making 'mistakes' over privacy
Facebook has agreed to overhaul privacy settings for users outside North America following an investigation by an Irish watchdog.
A three-month probe at the group’s international headquarters in Dublin found that Facebook users were at risk of unknowingly publicising personal details.
The Irish data protection commissioner warned the social networking website that it must simplify its privacy policies, which were found to be overly complicated and lacking transparency.
The US group is bound by Irish regulations because of the location of its international headquarters.
But it means Facebook, which has 800 million users worldwide, has now pledged to give those outside the US and Canada more information on how their personal data is handled.
The site said certain details would be deleted more promptly and users would be given a clear warning that it uses facial-recognition technology which automatically tags them in photographs.
The changes will be implemented during the next six months, ahead of another privacy review in July next year.
In a statement, Irish data protection commissioner Billy Hawkes said: “This was a challenging engagement both for my office and for Facebook Ireland.
“Arising from the audit, FB-I (Facebook Ireland) has agreed to a wide range of ‘best practice’ improvements to be implemented over the next six months.”
Facebook said the probe had “highlighted several opportunities to strengthen our existing practices”, but making the changes would require intense work.
Prior to the audit, Irish officials had received 22 complaints about Facebook from privacy campaign group Europe V Facebook and three from a Norwegian data protection authority.
Last month, Facebook’s founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the group had made “a bunch of mistakes” in how it handled personal data.
Source : Sky News
