Social media giant Facebook agreed yesterday to making privacy changes to their system in accordance with Canada’s privacy laws according to this article in the Globe and Mail. Facebook categorizes this change as  “Delivering More Control and Transparency” over to the facebook users, according to Tim Sparapini, Facebook Director of Public Policy.

I categorize it as the mainstreaming of social media tools and the development of policies and procedures governing their use in order to benefit the general public, build their comfort level with the technology plus provide  private media companies like Iterro with  the structures and guidance in order to function appropriately in the social media space.

And these things are going to create growth in the social media space as the user comfort level increases. Plus, it will give  companies like Iterro more to do as marketing managers hunt for ways to preserve their brand DNA (and maybe their careers) plus grow their business and successfully compete in this new environment.

The changes came about as a result of efforts by the Office of the Privacy Commission of Canada, acting under Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart who acted on behalf of an initial complaint lodged by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa. The specifics of the changes relate to the following areas, according to Jared Newman, writing in PC World:

• Third-party data mining of Facebook stored data (such as parents, location, preferences and age).
• Account deactivation and the removal of Facebook profiles.
• Privacy  concerns related to “non-Facebook users” or people who just surf facebook pages but don’t build profiles.
• Privacy concerns related to information retained on Facebook after the death of the user.

Canada is the first country to complete a full investigation of Facebook’s privacy practices and has around 12 million facebook users, more than one in three of the population.