Sigh. I suppose it's normal that my first post in a few weeks here would be about Facebook.

So, some dude set up a mischievous fake Facebook profile for some other dude in London, and ended up having to pay £22,000 in damages for libel and breach of privacy.

A businessman whose personal details were "laid bare" in fake entries on the Facebook social networking website has won a libel case at the High Court.

Mathew Firsht was awarded £22,000 in damages against an old school friend, Grant Raphael, who created the profile.

I'm not exactly sure how much £22,000 equals in real money, but I think the conversion process in my head puts it hovering somewhere near a gazillion dollars.

Why is this semi somewhat passingly important?

If you're coming here via the CBC Daybreak show this morning, here are some relevant links you might be interested in:

• The original post I wrote complaining about the inability to delete Facebook accounts - warning: strong language and vitriol...
• New York Times piece about Facebook's privacy policy, referencing my article
• Great article in The Guardian about exactly what's so wrong with Facebook
• Follow-up article in the New York Times about Facebook backing off on holding on to user accounts indefinitely (but still not allowing you to close your account yourself)
• Interesting and educational video about the process and people behind Facebook
• Reactions to my article from around the web
• Overview of various Facebook Privacy Policy responses
• All of my [mostly] non-Facebook Montreal related posts

Apart from my apparent inability to pronounce "irrevocable", that went rather well.

Just a quick note to let y'all know that I'll be speaking on CBC's Daybreak tomorrow (Thursday) morning at about 7:40 AM.

It's at 88.5 on the FM dial for those of you who don't know. You can also listen live online on the Daybreak website if you're not local.

I'll be talking about Internet policy, privacy, and - you guessed it - Facebook.

Following Maria Aspan's excellent article in the New York Times, Facebook has apparently softened their Draconian stance on not letting users leave Facebook. They went from making it impossible to delete your account to making it only slightly less cumbersome.

This is, of course, not nearly enough.

All those complaints from us concerned web users about Facebook violating our privacy rights seem to finally be paying off:

Facebook is to be quizzed about its data protection policies by the Information Commissioner's Office.

The investigation follows a complaint by a user of the social network who was unable to fully delete their profile even after terminating their account.

This is, of course, a great first step to ensuring that the world's most powerful social networking organization realizes that its customers actually do care about how their personal information is used and how it's shared with other companies, partners, and government organizations.

For those of you following the ever-entertaining saga about Facebook data mining the entire human population (except for the smart ones), here's another zinger about their relationship with TRUSTe, the supposed Internet privacy and trust organization founded in 1997. First, some extracts from their mission statement and website:

" TRUSTe® is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to enabling individuals and organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal identity and information in the evolving networked world.

Advancing privacy and trust for a networked world, we certify and monitor web site privacy and email policies, monitor practices, and resolve thousands of consumer privacy problems every year."

You've probably seen their logo on various sites you may visit, such as eBay. This 'privacy seal' is supposed to ensure that the website in question has trustworthy online privacy policies. Even though I've done a fair amount of work on the periphery of web privacy standards in Canada in the past few years, I'd never really crossed paths with TRUSTe other than noticing their seal on a few sites, and automatically assuming that the site in question cared more about privacy or protecting user data than another site which doesn't have the seal. For someone like me and the other eight people or so who actually care about user privacy on the web, it was like a warm fuzzy blanket that made me feel more comfortable visiting the site in question, and I never paid more heed to it than that.

I've just gotten back an email from TRUSTe regarding my complaint about the inability to fully close a Facebook account:

Dear Steven Mansour,

Thank you for submitting your privacy complaint through the TRUSTe Watchdog Dispute Resolution program. The TRUSTe Compliance Team has reviewed the details of your complaint and we have determined that it is a valid privacy complaint. We have contacted www.facebook.com on your behalf and have outlined the steps necessary for proper resolution.

Because you gave permission for the site to contact you directly, please be advised that you may receive emails directly from the site regarding resolution of your Watchdog complaint. [...]

That's great news for all of us who've been concerned about Facebook's stubborn - and Orwellian - refusal to voluntarily close user accounts when specifically asked to. Let's see how Facebook responds.

While I'm still getting comments on my post about How to Leave Facebook, around the web many more instances of discontent with Facebook's policies are rearing their heads.

First, it was comforting to know that I was not alone in the not-so-pleasurable experience of manually deleting all my Facebook content piecemeal. Kate Raynes-Goldie writes:

It took me just under four hours, sitting there clicking delete delete delete. It also didn't help that their software seems to get a bit screwy when you delete a lot of stuff fast. At one point I had left a bunch of groups, but it still had me listed as a member, but wouldn't let me leave again because I wasn't a member. Once you've had your hours of fun, you have to email Facebook again and ask them nicely to delete your account. I thought all of this was an insane requirement, so I emailed our friend Facebook Peter. The reply:

(edit: Thanks Julien, for introducing me to the awesome destructive power of Digg.)

Yes, it's true! I finally managed to close my Facebook account. It was a long, arduous road - the hardest part was slaying the Gorgon on level 16 - and I'm glad it's finally over.

If you, cherished reader, are wondering why I would do such a thing, then wipe those potato skins off the top of your Bananarama tour t-shirt and keep reading: