[_The Telegraph_][4] reported that the European Commission will issue a directive in January banning targeted advertising based on data the social network is able to collect on users' location, politics, sexuality, religious beliefs, and other criteria, unless the users grant permission.
EC Vice President Viviane Reding told _The Telegraph_ the directive would amend current European data protection laws in order to ensure consistency across the European Union, adding:
I call on service providers -- especially social media sites -- to be more transparent about how they operate. Users must know what data are collected and further processed (and) for what purposes. Consumers in Europe should see their data strongly protected, regardless of the EU country they live in, and regardless of the country in which companies that process their personal data are established.
_The Telegraph_ also reported that the EU's data protection working party plans to meet this week to discuss an audit of Facebook's practices currently being conducted by the data protection watchdog in [Ireland][5], site of Facebook's international headquarters. The group will focus on behavioral and targeted advertising, according to the newspaper.
A spokesman for the U.K. information commissioner told _The Telegraph_:
Facebook should ensure that any data it collects should be used in the manner that its users expect.
A Facebook spokesman responded:
We understand that people share a lot of information on Facebook, and we take this very seriously. We believe ads that are relevant, social, and personalized based on your real interests are better. We can show relevant ads in a way that respects individual privacy because our system only provides advertisers with anonymous and aggregate information for the purpose of targeting ads.
We do not share people's names with an advertiser without a person's explicit consent, and we never sell personal information to third parties.
There is no connection between the privacy settings people choose and our advertising. Whether you use your privacy settings to keep your profile very private, or very public, everyone sees the same amount of advertising down the right-hand side of the page.
Adverts are personalized to the individual user. We do not track peoples' behavior to serve advertising.
Readers: Do you think the European Commission directive will cause a significant change to how Facebook operates in the European Union?
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[![][10]][11] [![][12]][13] [![][14]][15]
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[1]: http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/EC.jpg (EC)
[2]: http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/EC.jpg
[3]: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-privacy-policies-2011-10 (Facebook Privacy Policies Challenged By Austrian Law Student)
[4]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8917836/Facebook-faces-a-crackdown-on-selling-users-secrets-to-advertisers.html (Facebook faces a crackdown on selling users' secrets to advertisers)
[5]: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-cookies-raise-ire-of-german-officials-2011-11 (Facebook Cookies Raise The Ire of German Officials)
[6]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/dSXm6MAO6jkbtuCUiLxW4EbKiTY/0/di
[7]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/dSXm6MAO6jkbtuCUiLxW4EbKiTY/0/da
[8]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/dSXm6MAO6jkbtuCUiLxW4EbKiTY/1/di
[9]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/dSXm6MAO6jkbtuCUiLxW4EbKiTY/1/da
[10]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=pnQdOprp5To
[11]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=b-7qde_jVJ0:ZsOZxrlUrhM:pnQdOprp5To
[12]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=qj6IDK7rITs
[13]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=b-7qde_jVJ0:ZsOZxrlUrhM:qj6IDK7rITs
[14]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?i=b-7qde_jVJ0:ZsOZxrlUrhM:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[15]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=b-7qde_jVJ0:ZsOZxrlUrhM:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[16]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/allfacebook/~4/b-7qde_jVJ0
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/allfacebook/~3/b-7qde_jVJ0/facebook-ads-europe-2011-11
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