German minister criticizes Facebook on privacy

A German minister has sharply criticized Facebook's handling of personal data and is calling on the social network to upgrade its privacy settings.

A German minister has sharply criticized Facebook's handling of personal data and is calling on the social network to upgrade its privacy settings.

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Consumer protection minister Ilse Aigner urges Facebook's CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg in an open letter "to revise the privacy policy without delay."

In the letter provided Monday to The Associated Press, Aigner refers to Facebook's planned changes to its privacy settings and calls on the company not to allow personal data to be passed on to third parties for commercial purposes without users' consent. She says "private information must remain private" and adds that "Facebook does not respect this wish."

The minister says she will delete her Facebook account if its does not change its planned privacy settings.