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Comment Data retention after account deletion (Score 1) 179

Slashdot says, "Also of concern: Facebook holds on to your data indefinitely after you quit the site." but Facbook told me otherwise. After seeing this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMWz3G_gPhU I figured i ought to delete my facebook account. Sent an email to facebook, asking about them keeping information related to my account on their data storage media (whether hard disks or otherwise) after a permanent deletion - not a deactivation. First response from Will at "user oprations" was a stock copy-paste selection from their (not very helpful) help pages about the difference between deletion and deactivation. Sent a clarifying response back to him. I got this: "The contract surrounding the Facebook Platform currently forbids storing data the way you suggest. The security of user data is not the charge of the user, but the responsibility of Facebook. Please remember that we are always looking to improve our platform, and we may revisit this in the near future. Keep your eye on the Developers Homepage Latest News section (http://developers.facebook.com/) for new information. Please let me know if you have any questions about this."
Privacy

Facebook Violates Canadian Privacy Law 179

Myriad and a number of other readers passed along the news that the Canadian Privacy Commissioner has made a determination that Facebook violates Canadian privacy law in four different respects. Canada has the highest per-capita facebook participation in the world — about a third of the population — according to coverage in The Star. The EU is also expressing similar privacy concerns, though Canada's action "represents the most exhaustive official investigation of Facebook privacy practices anywhere in the world," says Michael Geist. The CBC's coverage spells out the areas of privacy concern, in particular that nearly a million developers of Facebook apps in 180 countries have full access to the entirety of users' private data. Also of concern: Facebook holds on to your data indefinitely after you quit the site. The BBC notes that Facebook is working with the privacy commission to resolve the issues, and quotes a Facebook spokesman thus: "Overall, we are looking for practical solutions that operate at scale and respect the fact that people come to share and not to hide." (Schneier recently blogged about research on "privacy salience," and cited Facebook's practices among others' as practical examples of how social networking sites have learned not to push the privacy issue in users' faces.)

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