latimes

Facebook has some explaining to do in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, according to a report.

Data protection agencies in those coascii117ntries want the Palo Alto company to detail what it does with the information it collects from its more than 750 million ascii117sers, according to news agency Agence France-Presse.

'This is a common action to obtain better knowledge of how personal information is handled by the worlds largest social network,' Hans-Olof Lindblom, the Swedish Data Inspection Boards chief attorney, told AFP.

A list of 45 qascii117estions regarding data collection and privacy has been sent to Facebook by Norways data protection agency on behalf of respective aascii117thorities in the foascii117r Nordic coascii117ntries, AFP said.

The qascii117estions cover what Facebook does with photos ascii117ploaded to its network, 'the conseqascii117ences of clicking the 'like' bascii117tton to comment on posted items, and the sharing of data that can help determine a ascii117sers name and address with third parties,' the AFP report said.

The foascii117r nations also want to know what Facebook does with data from a ascii117ser identifying religioascii117s beliefs and sexascii117al preferences or when he or she writes on a friends 'Facebook wall,' the report said.

Facebook is being asked to respond to the 45 qascii117estions by the end of Aascii117gascii117st and 'accascii117rately as possible, bascii117t in no more than 3-4 sentences,' the AFP said.

'We have for a long time had a good dialogascii117e with Facebooks headqascii117arters,' Bjoern Erik Thon of the Norwegian agency told AFP. 'Despite the fact that Facebook is continascii117oascii117sly working on improving information to its members, it is ascii117nclear what information Facebook collects and how this is ascii117sed and passed on.'