Canada's privacy commissioner is expected to announce today timetables for Facebook to implement fixes that would better protect users' privacy.
The commissioner ruled in July that four of Facebook's practices violated Canadian privacy laws, and gave the company 30 days to respond. Facebook filed its plan to address the commissioner's concerns on Aug. 17.
Progress made between the parties since the report's release means that it's likely the commissioner won't have to take Facebook to court to have its findings enforced, said Tamir Israel, staff lawyer at the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, which originally filed the complaint about privacy.
“Even two weeks ago, the sense already was that the privacy commissioner had come to some sort of agreement” with Facebook, Mr. Israel said.
The biggest hurdle for Facebook will be around instituting privacy controls for popular third-party games and tools, such as Pet Society and Restaurant City, which keep users engaged on the social-networking site.
The commissioner said last month that developers who were creating these applications were getting more access to users' personal data than was necessary. Facebook should “implement technological measures to restrict application developers' access only to the user information essential to run a specific application,” the report ruled.
Two weeks ago, the company proposed tightening rules for developers in its “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities,” and included a requirement that third-party developers request only the personal information they need from users to actually run the application.
It gave the Facebook community until Aug. 18 to provide feedback on the proposed changes. Debbie Frost, a spokesperson for Facebook, said revisions are usually implemented a couple of weeks after the feedback period has ended.
Mr. Israel said he expects Facebook to commit to the technological changes, in addition to the proposed language changes in Facebook's statement of rights and responsibilities.
It's not clear how technological changes would play out on the site, or whether the estimated 350,000 companies that develop the applications are up to speed with what fixes might be necessary to implement them.
Family Link, which makes the popular We're Related application, with more than 19 million downloads, has had no contact with Facebook about any new technological changes, said Jim Ericson, Family Link's vice-president of marketing.
Any changes that Facebook makes are expected to be implemented beyond Canada.
“I think they are going to be Facebook-wide. That's what we've seen in the past,” Mr. Israel said.
With files from Canadian Press
