Privacy czar warns of too much online info

OTTAWA, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Canada's privacy commissioner told parliament in Ottawa Tuesday young people are disclosing far too much personal information on the Internet.

In her annual report, Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart singled out younger citizens as being too generous with their personal information, the Canwest News Service reported.

"Many young people are choosing to open their lives in ways their parents would have thought impossible and their grandparents unthinkable," Stoddard said. "Their lives play out on a public stage of their own design as they strive for visibility, connectedness and knowledge."

Her report cautioned that youth needs to "think twice" before posting personal information because "putting so much of their personal information out into the open can ... leave an enduring trail of embarrassing moments that could haunt them in future."

Stoddart made international news earlier this year when she mandated the U.S. social networking Web site Facebook amend its policy of allowing third-party commercial vendors access to users' personal information.

The California company, with more than 300 million subscribers, agreed to the order and is in the process of revamping its information-sharing, the report said.