Privacy watchdogs began an on-site investigation Tuesday of Facebook’s regional office in Ireland, FoxNews.com has learned, following sensational accusations that the company is creating extensive “shadow profiles” of non-users.
The eye-popping assertion came in a complaint filed in August by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, which alleges that users are encouraged to hand over the personal data of others. That includes “sensitive data such as political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation and so forth” — and Facebook is storing it all up in its databases.
Despite the company’s firm denials, the Data Protection Office began hunting for evidence on Tuesday, Oct. 25, to back up those claims.
“The on-site element started on Tuesday,” Lisa McGann, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, told FoxNews.com. The search will take a number of days, she said, but she could not address questions about what specifically the commissioner hoped to find or had already discovered.
In such investigations, the office has the power to inspect the building, question employees, and take away copies of any files stored on local computers, according to the Commissioner’s audit guidelines. The agency will then pore over that data for the next few weeks.
“It is the intention of the commissioner that the investigation will be completed by the end of the year,” McGann told FoxNews.com. The organization conducts few such reports each year; according to the Data Protection Commissioner’s 2010 annual report, the office opened 231 formal complaints under the Privacy in Electronic Communications Regulations act — but only conducted 32 “comprehensive privacy audits.”
via No Friends In Ireland: Probe Begins Into Facebook Privacy Issues | Fox News.
