Privacy Commissioner criticises Facebook
WELLINGTON: Facebook has breached the Privacy Act, the privacy watchdog says.
The announcement by Privacy Commissioner John Edwards yesterday comes after Facebook failed to provide a complainant access to personal information held on the accounts of several other users.
The social media company said the Privacy Act did not apply and therefore they did not need to comply with the commissioner’s request to review the information the complainant had asked for.
Mr Edwards said Facebook’s position that the Act did not apply was ‘‘surprising’’ and ‘‘contrary to its own data policy in regards to responding to legal requests for any personal information it held’’.
His view is that Facebook is subject to the Privacy Act because it operates in New Zealand and provides services to New Zealanders, despite its data processing taking place overseas.
Facebook breached the Act by failing to respond to the com plainant’s request for information, acknowledge it was subject to the Act and cooperate with the commissioner’s investigation.
Mr Edwards decided to make the breach public after Facebook was approached to comment on it but declined to do so.
In a statement yesterday, the commissioner’s office said Mr Edwards ‘‘considers it necessary to publicly identify Facebook in order to highlight its demonstrated unwillingness to comply with the law and to inform the New Zealand public of Facebook’s position’’.
A Facebook spokeswoman said the company was disappointed the ‘‘commissioner asked us to provide access to a year’s worth of private data belonging to several people and then criticised us for protecting their privacy’’.
‘‘We scrutinise all requests to disclose personal data, particularly the contents of private messages, and will challenge those that are overly broad.
‘‘We have investigated the complaint from the person who contacted the commissioner’s office but we haven’t been provided enough detail to fully resolve it,’’ the spokeswoman said. — NZN