The Telegram (St. John's)

Loreena Mckennitt deleting her Facebook profile

- BY DAVID FRIEND

Singer Loreena Mckennitt says she’s shutting down her Facebook profile over concerns for her fans’ privacy.

The Manitoba-born performer, known for her 1997 hit “The Mummers’ Dance,” told her 547,000 Facebook followers that she will close the fan page on June 1.

The decision comes after Mckennitt, who is a member of the Order of Canada, began researchin­g the details behind data exchange between Cambridge Analytica and Facebook.

She wasn’t satisfied with the social media platform’s response after learning how private informatio­n was being used.

“As a business owner and a citizen I became very concerned that Facebook was offside,” she said.

Mckennitt said the situation brought back memories of her own experience­s with breach of privacy about a decade ago.

A former friend published a book with details of her life, including passages about her relationsh­ip with her fiance who died in a boating accident.

She launched a lawsuit which led to a landmark U.K. court ruling in her favour which set a precedent for “right to privacy.”

“I felt like I couldn’t have come through the privacy case that I (was involved in),” she said, “and yet allow my own business to continue and be part of an ongoing infrastruc­ture that I knew was not as strong or as accountabl­e as it needed to be.”

Mckennitt hopes that her action will at least be “a catalyst for conversati­on” and possibly motivate people and businesses who were “sitting on the fence” to take action.

“Every company has a duty of care for their customers, and I don’t think people have thought about this,” she said.

“I believe that democracy doesn’t thrive as a spectator sport.” Other celebritie­s have severed ties with Facebook in recent months.

Jim Carrey sold his shares of the company in February and deleted his Facebook page saying they profited from Russian interferen­ce in the U.S. presidenti­al election and weren’t doing enough to stop it.

He urged others to follow his lead. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak left Facebook over his belief that the company was profiting off the data of its users.

Mckennitt, who releases a new studio album next month, added that she hasn’t entirely ruled out a return to Facebook if she feels they’ve fixed their security problems.

Whether or not that happens, she doesn’t accept suggestion­s from some critics who say it’s too late for people to close their Facebook accounts.

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