Most Facebook users enter a lot of information into the site, and as it turns out, it’s not at all easy to make Facebook forget it. As a result, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is now eyeing the social network.
The ICO is an independent authority in the UK, but, with its ties to Parliament and the Ministry of Justice, the ICO is quite powerful. Also, the ICO enforces the Data Protection Act, and it seems that Facebook’s habit of keeping data – even after users deactivate their accounts – may violate that Act.
“If you want all of that data to be removed you need to go through and manually delete all of that data,” notes Nick O’Neill. “Remove every friendship, unjoin every group, remove every wall post you’ve made, delete every photo you’ve uploaded and more. This can take days or even weeks if you are as active as I am on Facebook.”
The process is sure to be a nuisance for less enthusiastic users, as well, assuming they even know to delete everything. Slightly reassuring is what Facebook told Channel 4: “Facebook does not use any information from deactivated accounts for advertising purposes.”
Still, it wouldn’t be surprising if the ICO forces Facebook to change its ways, and in the meantime, the negative publicity generated by this issue isn’t doing the social network any favors.
