Facebook is being investigated by the UK government over how it manages user’s personal information.
A Facebook user complained that they closed their account but were not able to fully delete their profile has led to the government investigation. The social networking site is being questioned by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The investigation will focus on what happens to personal information when an account is closed. Currently personal information is stored in Facebook servers, which Facebook says is in “full compliance with UK data protection law.”
Facebook maintains that this is useful if a user later wants to reactivate their account, but the ICO is looking into how difficult it is for a former user to completely delete all their information from the Facebook system.
Dave Evans, senior data protection manager at the ICO told the BBC,” One of the things that we’re concerned about is that onus is entirely on the individual to delete data. An individual who has deactivated their account might not find themselves motivated enough to delete information that’s about them maybe on their wall or other people’s site.”
Evans said that the ICO has agreed with Facebook to discuss with them issues around what they do with information once an account has been deactivated. Facebook says it does not use information from deactivated accounts.
Facebook said, “We take the concerns of the ICO and our user’s privacy very seriously and are committed to working with the ICO to maintain a trusted environment for all Facebook users and ensure compliance with UK law.”
