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Canada privacy watchdog taking Facebook to court

OTTAWA — Canada’s privacy czar is taking Facebook to court after finding the social-media giant’s lax practices allowed personal information to be used for political purposes.

A joint report from privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien and his British Columbia counterpart released Thursday says it uncovered major shortcomings in Facebook’s procedures and called for stronger laws to protect Canadians.

The commissioners expressed dismay that Facebook had rebuffed their findings and recommendations.

Facebook insists it took the investigation seriously. The social media giant says it offered to enter into a compliance agreement.

The probe followed reports that Facebook let an outside organization use an app to access users’ personal information, and that some of the data was then passed to others. Recipients of the information included the firm Cambridge Analytica.

The Associated Press