MONTREAL, CANADA - STUDENTS at the University of Ottawa have filed an official complaint against Facebook, accusing the social networking website of violating Canada's privacy laws, Radio-Canada reported Saturday.

In a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the students said the popular US-based site sends users' personal information to third parties for advertising and marketing activities without the users' knowledge or consent, according to the report on the public broadcaster.

The students, many of whom are dedicated Facebook users, filed the complaint after studying the company's policies and business practices in their university course, Radio-Canada reported.

Launched in 2004 and now claiming 70 million active users worldwide, including seven million in Canada, Facebook is the globe's second most popular networking site after MySpace.

A spokesman for the privacy commissioner, who is responsible for monitoring compliance with Canadian privacy laws and investigating complaints of possible violations, was not immediately available for comment. -- AFP