Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner has been investigating Facebook’s privacy settings and determining how they comply with data protection regulations in Europe. The investigation, which took several months, has resulted in Facebook implementing the majority of the Commission’s recommendations. Facebook has improved transparency, made it easier for its European users to change their settings, and, most importantly, disabling its facial recognition feature.

Here’s what Facebook had to say about the implementations:

“As our regulator in Europe, the Irish Office of the Data Protection Commissioner is constantly working with us to ensure that we keep improving on the high standards of control that we have built into our existing tools. This audit is part of an ongoing process of oversight, and we are pleased that, as the Data Protection Commissioner said, the latest announcement is confirmation that we are not only compliant with European data protection law but we have gone beyond some of their initial recommendations and are fully committed to best practice in data protection compliance.”

However, Facebook also said in a statement that  it will be revisiting facial recognition technology in its European markets as soon as it finds a suitable compromise with the regulators.

If you haven’t disabled Facebook’s Facial Recognition feature, then check out this guide  to learn how.

What do you think about Europe’s distrust of Facebook and Facebook’s responses to this investigation? Should they be subject to similar investigations in the United States and elsewhere?

Recommended Resources

BitDefender Safego is a Facebook application you can install that will scan your News Feed and help keep you safe from scams on Facebook.

PRIVATE WiFi® is a Personal VPN that encrypts everything you send and receive. Don’t access Facebook from a public WiFi hotspot without it.

Action Alert | Free Parental Control offers a 100% free Internet safety solution designed for parents. There is also a Maximum Protection option for parents that need a more advanced set of tools.