Facebook fined by Canada competition watchdog after privacy probe

(Reuters) - Canada’s competition watchdog said on Tuesday it had fined Facebook Inc (FB.O) C$9 million ($6.5 million) after an investigation found the social network made “misleading” claims about personal information of Canadians on Facebook and Messenger.

The Competition Bureau said it found that Facebook’s privacy claims were not consistent with the way it shared personal data of users with some third-party developers.

“Although we do not agree with the Commissioner’s conclusions, we are resolving this matter by entering into a consent agreement and not contesting the conclusions for the purposes of this agreement,” a Facebook spokesperson said.

The world’s largest social network has faced broad criticism from lawmakers and regulators over its privacy practices. It agreed to pay a record $5 billion fine last year to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission data privacy probe.

Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel

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