Gold Coast axes Facebook data mining plan

Gold Coast City Council has scrapped a plan to mine the Facebook data of Commonwealth Games visitors amid security fears.

The plan, which required users to use their Facebook accounts to log in to new high-speed free Wi-Fi in Broadbeach, was savaged on Wednesday by civil libertarians.

On Thursday, the council announced it had scrapped the Facebook requirement after executives of the social media giant confirmed they had privacy issues with their site.

Visitors will now be able to access the Wi-Fi without logging in through their Facebook account.

"If Facebook cannot guarantee the security of its users, it is best council takes a cautionary approach and removes this feature from our free Wi-Fi," Councillor Hermann Vorster said.

The council's original plan outraged the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, which says privacy laws prohibit data collection unless it's necessary for council purposes.

"No doubt, the council says that one of its purposes is to promote tourism on the Gold Coast," QCCL president Michael Cope said on Wednesday.

"However, depending on the Facebook privacy settings of those using the Wi-Fi service, the council will collect a considerable amount of information which is absolutely unrelated to and unnecessary for the promotion of tourism."

Mr Cope said that could include how many friends users have, who those friends are, what they've liked on Facebook and their photos.

The council said personal data wouldn't be shared with other agencies.

"We will be able to monitor the people, where they come from, that is, the percentage of tourists coming from China, Japan, Southeast Asia and locals, and the timing of it as well," Mayor Tom Tate said on ABC radio.