Facebook has agreed to improve its privacy policy for
hundreds of millions of users after a three-month
investigation by Irish authorities at the U.S. group's
international headquarters in Dublin.
Facebook's Ireland office has responsibility for handing all
of its users outside of the United States and Canada. The
group operates the world's largest social networking website
with 800 million users.
The Irish Data Protection Commissioner said on Wednesday that
Facebook had agreed to improve privacy protections for its
users over the next six months, ahead of another formal
review in July of next year.
"This was a challenging engagement both for my Office and for
Facebook Ireland," Irish Data Protection Commissioner Billy
Hawkes said in a statement.
"Arising from the audit, FB-I (Facebook Ireland) has agreed
to a wide range of "best practice" improvements to be
implemented over the next six months."
The improvements include giving users information on how
Facebook and third-party apps handle personal information,
deleting certain details more promptly and give European
users a clear warning that it uses facial-recognition
technology that automatically tags them in photographs.
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