Facebook privacy targeted by Austrian law student

Ronald Zak/AP - Austrian student Max Schrems sits with 1,222 pages’ worth of files about his activities on his Facebook account that Facebook handed over to him after he filed a request with the social networking giant to receive his personal data.

By Craig Timberg, WashPost, Published: October 19

Schrems contends that Facebook collects too much information on its users, keeps it too long and uses it for purposes that violate European privacy laws. As evidence, he points to the 1,222 pages of data the social media company catalogued on him before he formally requested his file from Facebook last year.

The account it offered of his life — every friendship declared, every photo uploaded, every “poke” or comment or invitation sent or received over three years of casual use — sparked an online sensation when he posted it on a Web site he christened “europe-v-facebook.org.” Within a few months, 40,000 users had requested their own data, overwhelming Facebook’s system for handling requests under what until then had been a little-known provision of European law.

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