German minister demands Facebook privacy changes

Facebook has raised concerns with plans to change its privacy policy

Germany's consumer protection minister has written an open letter to Facebook expressing her concerns over the privacy of its user, turning up the heat on the social networking giant.

Ilse Aigner complained directly to Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg about the site's proposed changes to its privacy policy.

Facebook has said that the changes will allow the site to share personal information with "pre-approved" third-party web sites. This will mean that, if a user is logged into Facebook and then visits a third-party site, that site will be able to access the user's names, pictures and connections.

Facebook has defended its position, arguing that it will allow users to "opt out" of sharing their data.

However, Aigner has demanded that Facebook change its privacy policy, and has threatened to close her account if her proposals are not heeded.

"I was astonished to discover that, despite the concerns of users and severe criticism from consumer activists, Facebook would like to relax data protection regulations on the network even further," she said.

"Networks such as Facebook link millions of people across national boundaries, and it is for this very reason that particular importance must be attached to protecting privacy."

Aigner added that any amendments to privacy terms should be clearly communicated to all users before being made.

"Personal data is not allowed to be automatically passed on to third parties for commercial purposes without consent. Private data may only be passed on and used for commercial purposes with the consent of the persons involved," she said.

Aigner's comments follow a recent Sophos poll which revealed that 95 per cent of Facebook users oppose the privacy changes.

However, Facebook defended its record on privacy, highlighting the granularity of its controls and its policy of publishing proposed changes before they are implemented.

"The proposed new language in the Privacy Policy does not relate to the wholesale sharing of user data for commercial purposes as the minister fears, but to a very limited proposal to work with some pre-approved partner web sites to offer a personalised experience when you arrive at these sites," said a Facebook spokesperson.

"The proposed new language provides additional details to language we previously had in our policy that allows us to set up a test with a handful of carefully selected partners to provide express personalisation on their sites."

Facebook also confirmed that these partners will be "pre-selected, reviewed and bound by contracts with Facebook", like many of its other partners.