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Canadian top watchdog on Thursday has pledged to seek court order to force Facebook Inc. to change its practices. This came after Facebook broke Canadian privacy laws when it collected the information of some 600,000 Canadian citizens.
Privacy Commissioner, Daniel Therrien made his comments while releasing the results of an investigation, opened a year ago, into a data sharing scandal involving Facebook and the now-defunct British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
Though Facebook has acknowledged a “major breach of trust” in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the company, according to Therrien, disputed the results of the Canadian probe.
“Facebook’s refusal to act responsibly is deeply troubling given the vast amount of sensitive personal information users have entrusted to this company.
“Their privacy framework was empty, and their vague terms were so elastic that they were not meaningful for privacy protection,” he added.
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Facebook was not immediately available for comment.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner does not have the power to levy financial penalties, but it can seek court orders to force an entity to follow its recommendations.
The Canadian investigation revealed “critical weaknesses” in the current legislation, Therrien added, urging lawmakers to give his office more sanctioning power.
Canadian Democratic Institutions Minister, Karina Gould, who this month said the government might have to regulate Facebook and other social media companies unless they did more to help combat foreign meddling in this October’s election, will react later on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Yetunde Adegoke
