Facebook’s privacy setting change is “unacceptable”, Europe’s privacy watchdog has warned.
The Article 29 Working Party, an independent advisory body on data protection and privacy comprising the data protection regulators of the EU’s 27 member states, last week wrote to the company to complain about the way it changed the default setting on its social-networking platform.
Last year, Facebook changed the default privacy settings on its service, which meant users had to choose to opt out allowing more people to see their status updates, messages, pictures and other information.
Users who accepted the new defaults found their personal information available to more people than before.
A statement from Article 29 said: “It is unacceptable that the company fundamentally changed the default settings on its social-networking platform to the detriment of a user.
“Facebook made the change only days after the company and other social networking sites providers participated at a hearing during the Article 29 Working Party’s plenary meeting in November 2009.”
