Media News - Friday, June 26, 2009

EU data monitors outline Facebook ground rules

Some users of social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Bebo and not just the sites themselves are responsible for ensuring they adhere to European privacy laws, EU data protection enforcers have warned. All users should also be aware that they should only upload photographs to a social networking site with the consent of people in the image - a requirement that until now almost nobody has adhered to. Europe's "Article 29 Working Party," a committee of data protection regulators from across the bloc that advises the European Commission on the subject, issued on Wednesday its opinion on how European data privacy laws affect the rapidly growing world of social networking. The regulators' guidelines recommend that sites make full privacy settings the norm, with users having to choose to opt out of them should they so, rather than having to opt in to tighter privacy controls. As soon as users begin to upload data on themselves or others, they should be warned of the privacy risk and users should also be made clearly aware of what bits of their personal data is being made available to others. (EU Observer)

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