[rmc]

If you are not in the USA (and maybe Canada) and you sign up to Facebook, you are signing an agreement with Facebook Ireland Ltd., a company registered in the EU and, hence, subject to EU law.

One part of EU law is that people have the right to access all personal data that a company holds on them. Here's an example of how to make such a request. http://europe-v-facebook.org/

You might claim "people voluntarily choose to join a free service, what right do you have to demand anything?" however that's not how laws work. Facebook is legally obliged to give non-US customers their data.

[grey-area]

That's really interesting, I had no idea they were incorporated in Ireland too and hence sometimes subject to EU law (in theory at least). Thanks for the link. I'm not actually a member, but I'd be interested to see what they produce on other people just to see what sort of data they're holding.

[_delirium]

I believe it's done as a tax dodge, so they can book some of their income in Ireland (which has low corporate taxes). May not have fully realized the privacy-law implications at the time they set that up. Either that or the savings are enough to be worth it.