The changes will also impact users who have nothing to do with Facebook, as a key area of the investigation was the way Facebook handles the personal information on non-users. The Privacy Commissioner's particular concerns included whether non-users were aware that Facebook might be collecting, using and retaining their e-mail addresses. Facebook obtains the e-mail addresses when users enter them to send invitations from Facebook and let their non-user friends know when they have been tagged in a photo.

As part of the agreement, Facebook plans to add language to its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities reminding users that they are obligated to obtain consent from non-users before using their e-mail addresses. Facebook also promised to follow-up on any complaints it might receive from non-users regarding this issue and stated that it does not maintain a list of e-mail addresses of non-users, according to Elizabeth Denham, Assistant Privacy Commissioner, in a letter from the OPC to CIPPIC outlining its resolutions with Facebook.

Stoddart's office plans to publish a further document in the upcoming weeks that will outline the privacy settings for the most popular sites in Canada and the implications they have on the personal information of users.

Harley Finkelstein, who filed the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) complaint with fellow University of Ottawa student Jordan Plener in May 2008, is pleased with the announcement. "We think it is a huge success, not just for Facebook in Canada but also worldwide social networking sites," he said.

"It's sort of nice that Canada has been the one to set the tone for it and the only reason we have been able to do it is because we have this privacy legislation called PIPEDA that nobody else has," said Finkelstein, student-at-law at Chaitons LLP.