Facebook faces crackdown in Europe

Using sophisticated software,Facebook collects information from people8217;s activities on the social networking site 8212; whatever their individual privacy settings 8212; and make it available to advertisers,it claimed.

However,following concerns over the privacy implications of the practice,a new European Commission directive,is to be introduced in January,which will ban such advertising unless users specifically allow it,the newspaper said.

Even though most of the information it harvests is stored on computers in the USA,if Facebook fails to comply with the new legislation it may face legal action.

Viviane Reding,the vice-president of European Commission,said the directive would amend current European data protection laws in the light of technological advances and ensure consistency in how offending firms are dealt with across the EU.

8220;I call on service providers 8212; especially social media sites 8212; to be more transparent about how they operate. Users must know what data is collected and further processed and for what purposes.8221;

Facebook has,however,denied the claims.

A spokesman for the company said: 8220;We do not share people8217;s names with an advertiser without a person8217;s explicit consent and we never sell personal information to third parties.8221;