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By Randall Palmer - Reuters

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The popular social networking site Facebook is not doing enough to protect the personal information it gets from subscribers, and it gives users confusing and incomplete information about privacy matters, Canada's privacy commissioner said on Thursday.

"It's clear that privacy issues are top of mind for Facebook, and yet we found serious privacy gaps in the way the site operates," Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said in a report on an investigation into Facebook.

The report said Facebook violates Canada's privacy laws by keeping the personal information of people who have deactivated their accounts in its databases indefinitely.

It provides confusing information about privacy practices, for example showing users how to deactivate accounts but not how to delete them.

Facebook told the commissioner it needed to keep personal data for those who shut down accounts because about half of users reactivate accounts that they had deactivated.

The report said Facebook had strenuously objected to some of the commissioner's preliminary conclusions, and on Thursday Facebook said it would continue to work with her to address outstanding areas and to raise awareness of privacy controls.

Facebook has 200 million active users, including about 12 million in Canada -- more than one in three Canadians.

Stoddart also said Facebook lacked adequate safeguards to prevent unauthorized access to users' personal information by third-party developers. There are more than 950,000 developers in 180 countries.

She said Facebook had resolved some issues and she gave Facebook 30 days to comply with a series of "recommendations".

The investigation was launched in response to complaints by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) at the University of Ottawa. Stoddart has the power to ask Canadian courts to have her recommendations enforced.

In a statement, Facebook said it was "pleased that the Canadian federal privacy commissioner has dismissed the most of the inaccurate claims brought by CIPPIC, and that we were able to collaboratively resolve other issues raised in the complaint."

It added: "As part of our continued leadership in developing privacy tools that advance user control over their information, Facebook will soon be introducing a number of new additional privacy features to its service that we believe will keep the site at the forefront of user privacy and address any remaining concerns the commission may have."

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