Facebook‘s Ireland offices are being audited, as the company is facing a possible €100,000 ($138,000) fine for retaining data deleted by users, The Guardian reports.
The case began when a 24-year-old Austrian law student, Max Schrems, asked Facebook for copy of all his personal data in June. Facebook complied, sending him a CD containing 1,200 pages of data, including his likes, “friend” and “defriend” history, and chat logs.
The problem? Schrems had deleted some of the data returned to him from his profile, yet Facebook retained his information.
Schrems proceeded to start an initiative called Europe vs. Facebook, and filed 22 individual claims about the social network’s practices.
The complaints include some of the ways Facebook keeps deleted user data, and highlight some of Facebook’s Terms of Service and business shortcomings.
“Postings that have been deleted showed up in the set of data that was received from Facebook,” says one complaint. “The privacy settings only regulate who can see the link to a picture. The picture itself is “public” on the internet. This makes it easy to circumvent the settings,” says another.
According to ZDNet, the complaints have already yielded results: Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has called for an audit of Facebook’s offices, which will take place before Christmas.
Should the DPC find Facebook has breached Irish data protection law, it can ask the company to change the way it handles personal data. Should Facebook fail to comply, it could face a fine of up to €100,000 ($138,000). Of course, for Facebook, the negative publicity could be more damaging than the amount of the fine.
In February 2009, Facebook changed its Terms of Service, giving itself the right to use or modify user data in any way it wants, even if a user quits the service.
This subtle change in Facebook’s TOS prompted a huge public backlash, ultimately forcing Facebook to backpedal a little. In an elaborate blog post, Mark Zuckerberg explained why the company feels it needs to retain a copy of user’s data.
While some of his arguments are valid — for example, it’s very tricky to permanently delete a message you’ve sent another user, as the other user also has the right to keep his/her copy — this latest incident might once again spark complaints from users feeling Facebook has granted itself too many liberties with their data.
With the public roll-out of Timeline on the horizon, many users are bound to have a slew of new privacy concerns. If you are already using Timeline, have you found any of your data you thought was hidden or deleted appearing publicly? Please share your experiences below.
[via
The Guardian]
And Villafne will show you how to push your Jack O’ Lantern limits on his website, where he gives an extreme pumpkin carving tutorial.
3. Gourdanimo Jack O’ Lantern
Ray has been at his craft for more than fifteen years. He used to be a grade school teacher in Michigan, but now he sculpts full time.
5. Extreme Jack O’ Lantern
“The most important thing about a pumpkin is its weight. You need to pick the meatiest pumpkin. Sometimes I pick up a beautifully shaped pumpkin but when I do I realize that it is not heavy enough. Its wall is just not thick enough for the carving rigors.” – Villafane
You can follow Villafane’s work on his Facebook page.
7. Jack-O-n’ Hide
“I used to be an art teacher at a Michigan school and one day I was approached to do some pumpkin carving. I thought why don’t I try and carve the pumpkin like it is a piece of clay as opposed to a large vegetable. It came out alright, but the most important result was that the kids at the school absolutely loved it. I used to arrive at school and there would be a dozen pumpkins just sitting there waiting for me at my classroom.” – Villafane
“I also like a pumpkin with character. One with knobbly ridges is good, so that I can utilise that in the carving procedure, like with sculpting noses.” – Villafane
9. Pumpkin Brains
Ray has won the Food Network’s Challenge: Outrageous Pumpkins, twice.
10. Zipper Head Jack O’ Lantern
“The most intricate pumpkin model that I have designed is the Zipperhead model, which took the best part of a day. Otherwise, the models take a couple of hours.” – Villafane.
