Facebook has to explain better to users what happens to their personal data and give them more control, the data commissioner in Ireland, home to the website’s international headquarters, said Wednesday.

Facebook must work towards “simpler explanations of its privacy policies (and) … easier accessibility and prominence of these policies,” the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) said after an “audit” lasting three months.

It called on the US firm behind the popular website, which helps its some 800 million users worldwide keep in touch with friends and exchange information, to provide “an enhanced ability for users to make their own informed choices.”

The DPC report, available at www.dataprotection.ie/docs/Home/4.htm, also called on Facebook to allow users to delete old messages, friend requests, pokes, tags and posts. (more…)