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Following a three-month audit by Ireland’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), Facebook promised at the end of last year to make a slew of changes to give users more control over their privacy. The social networking company gave itself a series of deadlines for this, the first falling on March 31 of this year.

It’s now April — and Facebook has failed to meet its first quarter deadline for privacy changes.

Irish authorities told the Austrian-based online privacy group Europe Versus Facebook, which first commissioned the DPC’s audit, that they hope to reach an agreement with Facebook by the end of April.

Facebook will not be hit with any penalties for missing its privacy deadlines. Here’s the company’s statement:

Facebook Ireland is investing a huge amount of effort to ensure we are making progress against all of the commitments we made during the audit … We have a constant dialogue with officials working for the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, who are responsible for overseeing the work we are undertaking, to reassure them of our progress.

We recently reported to them that we have implemented some of their recommendations ahead of schedule and that we expect to meet all the Q1 aspirations over the coming weeks.

Facebook’s international headquarters is in Dublin, Ireland, which is why the DPC’s audit carries so much weight. All users outside of Canada and the U.S. are subject to the data protection regulations set forth in Ireland.

The DPC’s lengthy audit report details all the privacy recommendation changes. The main consensus is not too different from most Facebook privacy arguments — that Facebook needs to be more transparent, and users need to have more control.

The exact changes Facebook agreed to implement, with their respective deadlines, are also summarized online.

Although Irish authorities haven’t set any penalties against Facebook, Max Schrems, who oversees Europe versus Facebook, released his own statement slighting the DPC’s response:

“It seems like the authority does not care if Facebook is breaching the law and the deadline in the authorities report,” he said. “Every normal citizen gets a fine, but Facebook apparently doesn’t.”

What do you think of Facebook’s deadline miss and the DPC’s reaction? Should the DPC have been tougher on Facebook? Sound off in the comments.

More About: European Union, Facebook, online privacy

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Although it is required by law for Facebook users to be at least 13 to join the network, many believe the age limit should be higher, a new study says.

According to a poll conducted among 2,000 consumers on the opinion-based community SodaHead.com, about 34% of respondents said Facebook users should be at least the age of 13 to join. However, most voters selected ages older than 13 as a minimum requirement, as 29% want ages 14 – 17 to be the earliest and 19% said the site should be limited to those over the age of 18.

Only 13% said users between the ages of 10 and 12 were acceptable for the site, followed by 5% approving of people joining between the ages of 7 and 9.

Child privacy laws necessitate Facebook’s age minimum of 13 years old.

Teens are also on board with age restrictions on the site. About 57% of those ages 13 to 17 said the 13-year-old requirement is fair, while only 18% said it should be younger. About 25% said Facebook should raise its age requirement to over 13.

Monica Vila, co-founder of parent blog site The Online Mom told Mashable that parents do tend to agree that 13 and older is the right age for kids to join the site.

“The reality is that most [parents] either agree to allow their younger kids on Facebook after repeated requests or are unaware that their kids have accounts much earlier than 13,” Vila said. “In that sense, the train has left the station — kids under 13 are using Facebook.”

Vila urged parents to focus on instilling best practices on the site to ensure their safety and proper use.

“Let’s stop focusing on what the right age should be and devote the energy instead on how best to guide them to make good use of these platforms,” she said.

Do you agree with Facebook’s minimum age of 13? Do you think it should be higher, lower or based on maturity level? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Infographic courtesy of SodaHead.com

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Facebook users have to work harder to keep their friend count up these days. A majority of adults on social networking sites have no bouts with deleting former “friends.”

Women more than men are restricting their profiles, deleting comments and tailoring their profiles due to privacy and reputation concerns, according to a new Pew Research Center’s Internet Project & American Life study. Researcher interviewed 2,277 Americans who were 18 or older on the phone to gain information about what the public thinks about social media privacy.

They found almost 70% of female respondents said they have unfriended individuals, compared to 58% of men who also said yes.

Overall, Facebook users are more cautious about who sees their information. About 58% choose to keep their profiles locked down with privacy settings, while only 20% of users maintain a completely public profile. About 19% of Facebook users keep their profile partially private.

This may be due to the fact that many young adults — doing most of the unfriending, untagging and deleting — are looking for jobs. Businesses and companies, more than ever, are looking at Facebook profiles for first impressions of applicants.

SEE ALSO: How to See When Someone Unfriends You on Facebook

Facebook users are also monitoring what content is associated with their profile — 44% have deleted comments from their profile and 37% have untagged photos. Men are more likely than women to regret posting something on their social media profiles.

Researchers believe profile pruning will continue to rise. Pew researchers believe this kind of research goes against mainstream ideas that say the public isn’t concerned with online privacy. The numbers show “privacy is important” to social media users.

The study also reported about half of people who use social media think managing privacy controls is somewhat difficult. College graduates are more likely to report difficulties with setting privacy controls than people with less education, Pew finds.

Tell us in the comments if you feel like you are taking actions to make your profile more private by unfriending people, untagging photos and deleting comments.

More About: Facebook, online privacy, study, Video

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Facebook’s privacy settings are extremely detailed, giving you the ability to fine-tune the privacy aspects of almost every little part of your Facebook account. Unfortunately, for most users, this level of micromanagement makes Facebook’s privacy settings a convoluted mess.

Even worse, these settings change often; you may think you know everything there is about them, only to be greeted with a completely different layout and a bunch of new options the next time you visit the dreaded Facebook Privacy Settings page.

So, what do you do when you’ve got over 170 options to choose from? You focus on the most important ones. We’ve entered Facebook’s maze of privacy options and came out on the other side bruised, battered, but with 10 essential settings in our hands. Disregard them at your own peril!

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1. Sharing on Facebook

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Account > Privacy Settings > Sharing on Facebook

Controlling how you share content is quite complex and will probably make your head hurt, but it’s essential that you take a good look at the settings and decide for yourself what you want to share and with whom.

Facebook gives you the easy way out: You can share content with Everyone, Friends of Friends, or Friends only. However, if you’re using lists (see item number eight on this list), you might want to customize the settings and set a certain type of content to be visible to the people on some of your lists, and invisible to others. For example, only my close friends can see all my photos, while business associates can see just a few.

It’s important to note the “Preview my Profile” option which lets you see your profile as someone else would. Setting all the options just right can sometimes be tricky. When in doubt, defer to this option.

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2. Existing Photos

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Account > Privacy Settings > Sharing on Facebook > Customize Settings > Edit album privacy for existing photos

Settings for sharing content on Facebook can be treacherous as they don’t always apply to all your existing photos. With this setting, you can go through your old albums and change the privacy setting for each one, including your Wall Photos.

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3. Checking In to Places

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Account > Privacy Settings > Sharing on Facebook > Customize Settings > Friends can check me in to Places

Another setting under Sharing on Facebook often goes unnoticed, and it can be very important, as it lets your friends check you in to Places. Having someone else telling the world where you are can be unpleasant and even dangerous in some cases. If you want to avoid it, disable this feature.

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4. Connecting on Facebook

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Account > Privacy Settings > Connecting on Facebook

Privacy settings for sharing content on Facebook are separated from the settings for connecting, which basically means sharing information about you: Your photo, gender, age, education, hometown etc.

Furthermore, these settings determine how people can find you on Facebook. Can they do it simply by searching for your name? Can anyone add you as a friend, and send you a message?

Here, you can change those settings to Friends Only, Friends of Friends, Everyone or — in some cases — customize them. For example, if you get pestered by too many anonymous messages, you might consider letting only your friends send them. Be careful: If you set everything to the strictest available privacy setting, people may have a harder time finding you on Facebook.

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5. Apps You Use

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Account > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > Apps You Use

This is another painful setting as it usually means wading through dozens of apps and either removing them or editing the privacy settings for each of them individually.

We suggest removing all of the apps you’re not using (hint: If you can’t remember what it is, you probably don’t need it), and carefully reviewing the permissions you’ve given each individual app. For example, some apps like to post on your Wall even though they don’t require the option to function.

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6. Instant Personalization

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Account > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > Instant Personalization

We’ve covered this setting in-depth before. For detailed info on what it does, check out this article. Essentially, it lets third-party websites personalize your experience, which can be nice, but it also allows access to your personal data.

You can opt-out of Instant Personalization on individual third-party websites, such as Pandora, simply by clicking on “No Thanks” when asked about it. However, on Facebook you can completely disable it by leaving the checkbox before “Enable instant personalization on partner websites” unchecked.

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7. Info Accessible to Your Friends

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Account > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > Info accessible through your friends

This is where Facebook’s privacy settings get really tricky, and most users don’t realize it. No matter how tight your privacy settings are, you’re still sharing some of your content and info with a group of people, even if it’s only your closest friends. However, what you share with them doesn’t necessarily end with them, especially if their privacy settings are lax. In the end, your friends might be sharing your info with third-party services, which is precisely what you want to avoid.

With this setting, you can set exactly what information is available to apps and websites if your friends use them.

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8. Public Search

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Account > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > Public Search

When someone searches for you on a search engine, they might get a preview of your public profile which, in some cases, can be very revealing. If you don’t want that to happen, you should turn this option off.

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9. Friend Lists

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Friends > Edit Friends > Create a List

If you’re a typical Facebook user, you have 130 friends, and it’s very likely that you don’t want to share every detail of your life with all of these people.

This is where Friend Lists come into play. By creating lists of — for example — your family members, close friends and business acquaintances, you can finely tune the details you want to share with each list (as explained above).

Creating lists can be a bit dull at first, especially if you start doing it when you already have hundreds of friends, but once you set them up, it’s easy to add each new friend to a particular list.

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10. Enabling HTTPS

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Account > Account Settings > Account Security > Secure Browsing (HTTPS)

The last setting we’d like to highlight has more to do with security than privacy. However, if someone hacks into your account or sniffs your data (which can be easily done with an app like Firesheep), all the privacy settings in the world won’t help you protect it.

Recently, Facebook started introducing HTTPS support, which makes it a lot harder for someone connected to the same network to sniff your password and other data. It makes Facebook a bit slower, and certain features don’t work yet, but we highly recommend it as HTTPS is essential to online security on all web services, not just Facebook.

If the option isn’t available to you just yet, don’t worry. Facebook promised it will gradually roll out the feature in the following weeks.

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More Privacy Resources from Mashable:

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- What Is Data Privacy Day? [INFOGRAPHIC]
- The Real Reason No One Reads Privacy Policies [INFOGRAPHIC]
- Who Owns Your Data?
- HOW TO: Make Sure Your Smartphone Payments Are Secure
- 3 Lessons for Keeping Your Social Business Systems Secure

More About: facebook, online privacy, privacy, settings, social media, social networking, trending

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