Facebook forced to overhaul privacy policy

Facebook was given 30 days to respond to the Commissioner's report and explain how it would address outstanding concerns.

Facebook has agreed to prevent any application from accessing information until it obtains express consent for each category of personal information it wishes to access. The user will be able to control which categories of information an application is permitted to access. There will also be a link to a statement by the developer to explain how it will use the data.

The social networking site has agreed to make it clear to users in its privacy policy that they have the option of either deactivating their account or deleting their account. Facebook also said it would be clear in its privacy policy that it will keep a user's profile online after death so that friends can post comments and pay tribute.

Facebook will make the changes over the next 12 months.

Meanwhile, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg plans to double the headcount at the social network this year to 2,000 people.

Zuckerberg, in an interview with Bloomberg, said that Facebook is taking advantage of other companies' incapacity to hire new staff during the recession, to snap up engineers.