Facebook Keeps Data After You Delete Profile

Facebook‘s Ireland offices are being audited, and the company could face $138,000 in fines.

Privacy complaints are nothing new to Facebook. However, a pending law suit has huge implications for the social network.

Earlier this year, a 24-year-old Austrian law student, Max Schrems, asked Facebook for a copy of all his personal data in June. Facebook sent him,200 pages of data, including his likes, “friend” and “defriend” history, and chat logs.

A problem arose when Shrems realized data in the report had previously been deleted from his profile.

According to the official complaint, “Postings that have been deleted showed up in the set of data that was received from Facebook.”

In February 2009, Facebook changed its Terms of Service, giving itself the right to use or modify user data in any way it wants, even if a user quits the service.

While a fine of $138,000 is not going to ruin Facebook, the negative publicity could. Cyber security is an increasingly popular issue, specifically with Facebook and the new Open Graph format.

We will be sure to follow this issue and update you as new information is available.

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