Facebook agrees to improve privacy settings

Dublin: Facebook users will enjoy tighter privacy controls after the social networking giant was ordered by the Republic of Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner to change how it handles personal data.

The probe by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) at the U.S. group’s international headquarters in Dublin said users were at risk of unknowingly publicizing personal details.

For example, users might not be aware that uploading their photos made them publicly searchable until they change the setting on their Facebook page.

“This was a challenging engagement both for my office and for Facebook Ireland,” Irish Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes said in a statement. “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.”

The improvements include giving users more information about how Facebook and third party apps handle their personal information, deleting certain details more promptly and giving users a clear warning that it uses facial-recognition technology that automatically tags them in photographs.





source:http://www.thenewstribe.com/2011/12/22/facebook-agrees-to-improve-privacy-settings/#.Txm2W0hukWY