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ARTICLE · 19 OCTOBER 2010

Privacy and Social Media: Challenges to Business

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
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The privacy practices of many social media website operators have been, and continue to be, the subject of criticism from privacy regulators and the general public.

CanadaIntellectual Property
Wendy Mee
Wendy Mee
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Copyright 2010, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

Originally published in Blakes Bulletin on Intellectual Property–Social Media Series, October 2010

The privacy practices of many social media website operators have been, and continue to be, the subject of criticism from privacy regulators and the general public. In early 2010, the heads of the data protection authorities in 10 different countries, including Canada, sent a public letter to Google Inc. to express their concerns about privacy issues related to GOOGLE BUZZ, the company's then newly released social networking application.

More recently, the Canadian federal Privacy Commissioner, after completing an investigation commenced in 2008 into the privacy practices of Facebook, Inc., announced another investigation. The most recent investigation relates to the "Like" button on FACEBOOK. The "Like" button allows users to indicate which products, articles and other content on the Internet they like. Many users

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