Japan Urges Facebook to Take Corrective Steps over User Data

Tokyo, Oct. 22 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese government panel urged Facebook Inc. on Monday to take corrective measures after the U.S. social network giant was found to have collected personal data without permission. Based on the Japanese law on protecting personal data, the Personal Information Protection Commission instructed Facebook to obtain approval from users whose data were collected without approval or respond to their requests for the deletion of their data. It was the first time for the commission to give such instructions to Facebook. According to the commission, data on users, such as the identification and access history, have been programmed to be sent to the company automatically if they visit websites carrying a "Like" button provided by the company even if they do not click the button. In addition, the company illegally provided a British election consulting firm with part of information on users it collected through an app for finding personality traits. Over the recently revealed leak of personal data on some 29 million people from Facebook to hackers due to a security hole, the commission urged the firm to investigate the cause and take preventative measures. END