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Social networking sites face privacy restrictions
European regulators to crackdown on unscrupulous methods to raise profits.
- By Richard Waters, Financial Times
- Published: 23:05 June 19, 2009
San Franscisco: European privacy regulators could be about to throw a spanner into the works of attempts by social networking sites such as Facebook to find new ways to increase profits as they try to restrict the way internet groups release personal data.
The European move marks the first attempt by regulators to address the "open" internet platforms that the social networks, led by Facebook, have rushed to create.
By letting other applications ride on top of their systems, tapping into personal data about their members, the networks have sought both to tie in users for longer and create money-making opportunities.
However, regulators say tighter rules are needed to protect personal data given to these third-party developers.
In particular, they believe developers should be subject to tough European Union privacy and data protection rules, even when the concerned companies are located far from Europe.
At the same time, they argue that many corporate marketers who have turned to new forms of social media as a way to reach consumers should also be subjected to stiffer regulations.
In some cases, the stricter rules could even extend to individuals who have attracted large numbers of "friends" online, particularly if some are people they don't know personally.
The views are contained in an unpublished opinion paper from a group made up of Europe's national data-protection and privacy commissioners.
The group, known as the Article 29 working party, acts as an advisory body to the European Commission. While their views do not carry any formal authority, they are designed to guide individual national regulators.
Given the growing importance of applications used on social networks, the rules amount to "a road map for their business future," said Jeff Chester, a US privacy advocate.
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