Data complaints to be investigated

The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has confirmed it will begin examining allegations that data from Irish Facebook users has been passed on to the US National Security Agency (NSA).

The move follows an official complaint from the Europe v Facebook.org group. A similar complaint, regarding Apple, was also lodged and follows the disclosure by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden of the NSA’s role in compiling individuals’ data as part of an operation known as Prism.

Europe V Fcebook.org has launched actions against the European subsidiaries of Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Skype, and Yahoo.