Queensland privacy commissioner attacks Facebook

Queensland Privacy Commission Linda Matthews has attacked social networking giant Facebook for its failure to educate users on the site’s actual goals.

As reported by ITNews.com.au, Matthews told the World Computer Congress in Brisbane the company has “enormous power”.

“There’s nothing wrong with making money; what’s wrong is that it deceives potential users about that,” she said. “There’s a big difference [to users] between choosing to share your personal information to make friends, and sharing your personal information to make someone lots of money.”

“Given the complexity, I think the onus is on organisations to be a lot clearer on their privacy wordings,” she said.

Facebook has been attacked by several privacy commissioners both at home and abroad for failing to live up to privacy standards.