OTTAWA - The federal privacy watchdog is looking into a new complaint about Facebook, the popular social networking site.
Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said Wednesday the complaint focuses on a personal-settings tool introduced by Facebook last month.
The complainant, whose identity is confidential, alleges new default settings would have exposed his information to a greater degree than settings he had previously put in place.
Elizabeth Denham, the assistant privacy commissioner, said in a news release the grievance echoes other concerns expressed in recent months.
"Some Facebook users are disappointed by certain changes being made to the site -- changes that were supposed to strengthen their privacy and the protection of their personal information."
California-based Facebook, which has nearly 12 million Canadian users and some 250 million worldwide, allows people to keep in touch with friends and family by updating their personal pages with fresh messages and photos.
In a statement Wednesday, Facebook said it had not seen the complaint "but we are confident that the transition process begun more than a month ago was transparent, consistent with user expectations, and within the law."
The company said the announcement and education campaign by Facebook around the changes "was unprecedented in its scope."
It says recommended changes to a user's privacy settings were clearly shown to the person repeatedly and were not put in place until the user accepted the changes.
Last July, Stoddart recommended that Facebook provide users with more control over their personal information.
She said Facebook breached federal privacy law by keeping users' personal information indefinitely -- even after members shut their accounts.
She also raised concerns about the sharing of users' personal information with the almost one million third-party developers scattered across the globe who create Facebook applications such as games and quizzes.
In general, her report called for more transparency to ensure the site's Canadian users have the knowledge they need to make meaningful decisions about how widely they share personal information.
Stoddart launched the probe in response to a complaint last year from the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, based at the University of Ottawa's law faculty.
In August, Facebook agreed to address the commissioner's concerns within a year.
The privacy commissioner said Wednesday it will investigate the latest complaint while continuing to follow up with Facebook as it introduces new changes.
