The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic has filed a complaint stating that Facebook might be violating some 22 privacy laws. The people that have first made their concerns public, thus leading to the complaint being filed, are a group of law students, who made the findings while working on a school project this winter.

According to the CIPPIC, Facebook might be facilitating advertisers' access to the personal information of its subscribers. Even though Facebook gives its subscribers the illusion that they have complete access over which information will be made public and which not, it seems that users find it difficult to hide some information sometimes, and that the social networking site does not bother too much to instruct them how to protect their personal information.

What seems to be more important is the fact that even if a user has decided to hide all the personal information he/she can, friends’ security settings affect his/her information’s visibility as well. What is more, third party Facebook applications have access to all the information its users have, regardless of the fact that the application needs it or not. Another issue the law students have found is the fact that Facebook subscribers cannot delete their accounts, but only suspend them, and that their personal information still remains in Facebook’s database.

The networking site replied the accusations saying that it offers some of the best personal information protection available today, and that it does everything it can to teach its users how to protect their personal data. Facebook also said that it has worked with Ontario authorities to create videos and brochures that teach its users how to activate their privacy security options.