30/09/2011

Social networking giant Facebook is facing legal challenges on both sides of the Atlantic over privacy issues.

The data commissioner in Ireland, where the company has its European base, has revealed plans to conduct a privacy audit after receiving 22 complaints from a campaign group, Europe versus Facebook.

Irish deputy data protection commissioner Gary Davis told the Financial Times: 'This audit will examine the subject matter of the complaint, but also will be more extensive and will seek to examine Facebook’s compliance more generally with Irish data protection law.'

Meanwhile, the US Federal Trade Commission is also set to probe the firm, after a consortium of information protection groups wrote to the regulator criticising the sharing of browsing activity.

In particular, it will look into a recent admission that users were being tracked even after they had signed out.

A study by research firm Nielsen earlier this month found US web surfers spend more time on Facebook than any other site.