Facebook Faces Scrutiny over Privacy

Financial Times: In the wake of revelations about the company’s tracking of cookies after users have logged off, Facebook’s privacy practices will come under closer scrutiny in Europe and the U.S. The Irish data protection commissioner has announced plans to conduct an audit of the social network in order to follow up on complaints made by an Austrian group called Europe versus Facebook. In the U.S., a consortium of privacy advocates and researchers, as well as two members of the House of Representatives, have called for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the company.

In response to the news of the audit, Facebook issued a statement saying, “Facebook’s European headquarters in Ireland manages the company’s compliance with EU data protection law. We are in regular dialogue with the Irish data protection commissioner and we look forward to demonstrating our commitment to the appropriate handling of user data as part of this routine audit.”