The tangled web we weave
US owned Facebook’s privacy practices are considered a ‘substantial threat’ to users according to Privacy International.
The human rights and research organisation justified its reasoning stating Facebook does not inform its users on measures being taken to protect its data.
Internationally, there have been criticisms about the way the United States deals with online personal data in general.
Director, centre of IT and law at the University of Bristol Andrew Charlesworth said: “In the European Union countries there is a base line data protection guarantee, but there is not the equivalent in the United States, the US has a patch work of federal and state privacy laws. 
“The US argument is that self-regulation is usually the best way to go when regulating certain
circumstances. It is argued that self-regulation can be done at a more effective level because you aren’t relying on a set of regulators who are distant from the data protection issues.”
Freelance technology journalist Bill Thompson said: “At the moment data from Facebook is being processed under US law, but it is being regionalised and will be drawn into European data protection framework.”
Like Google and MySpace, individuals will be able to host
themselves in the US or the European versions, which will be
subject to local law.
“The idea that you have to give people an opportunity to operate in their own jurisdiction and their own legal framework is growing among these sites,” added Mr Thompson.
Click to listen to Bill Thompson's opinion