Japan urges Facebook to improve protection of personal data

Japan on Monday urged Facebook to improve the protection of personal data following a string of incidents in which the information of millions of users of the social networking site was leaked.

The Personal Information Protection Commission adopted a resolution on Monday asking Facebook to take measures to prevent similar incidents, the first such warning by the body to the social media giant, reports Efe news.

The document said that personal data of Facebook users included in their profiles or browsing history were automatically transferred to Facebook when they viewed an outside website that had Facebook's "Like" button, even when the users did not click on the button.

The Commission asked Facebook to provide clear explanations about how it uses personal data, take the consent of users to transfer their data to other platforms and to respond properly to those who make a request for their data to be deleted.

Around 29 million Facebook accounts were hacked in September, including several million in Japan, while around 100,000 Japanese users were affected by the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, according to the report by the Japanese commission.

The panel also ordered Facebook to report the conclusions of its internal investigation into the breach by the political-data firm.

The committee is a supervisory body responsible for the protection of personal data in Japan and is also responsible for issuing orders to companies based in the country, linked to compliance with national regulations.

--IANS

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