Belgian Privacy Watchdog Sues Facebook

An anonymous reader writes: Belgium is taking Facebook to task – and to court – about the company's opaque user-monitoring frameworks. The country's independent Privacy Commission, which is partnered with equivalent institutions in the Netherlands, France, Germany and Spain, failed to obtain information from the social media giant about the extent and nature of its user-analysis network, and has now decided to take action. The commission is particularly interested in the use that Facebook makes of information about users who are not logged in to Facebook, and may not even be members. The ubiquity of Facebook "share" buttons, along with other popular widgets or modules, have extended the company's reach far beyond its own site. The court convenes on the matter this Thursday.

Comments

Yay for Belgium

[Anonymous Coward]

I think people in Europe are not as blinkered and easily duped as the USAians or others. FB is very invasive and not welcome, it is part of the problem and not part of the solution (on privacy and digital rights).

Re:Yay for Belgium

[antiperimetaparalogo]

I think people in Europe are not as blinkered and easily duped as the USAians or others. FB is very invasive and not welcome, it is part of the problem and not part of the solution (on privacy and digital rights).

Yea, we Europeans are really super extra great, not like Yankees... it is just that we like our goverments to treat us like babies who can't enter in to an agreement with a business, PLUS, we are stupid enough that we can't even decide what is the law!

Facebook has its European wing in Ireland (EU member), respecting the Irish law, which says it's o.k. for Facebook to operate in this way, but some Belgians (also EU member) say it may not be o.k. - and EU rules say that if Ireland says it's o.k., then it's o.k. for the whole EU! Stupid Yankees, they can't understand our super extra great European ways...

Re:Yay for Belgium

[Calydor]

who can't enter in to an agreement with a business

The commission is particularly interested in the use that Facebook makes of information about users who are not logged in to Facebook, and may not even be members.

Facebook is essentially saying you don't HAVE to enter into an agreement with them in order for them to keep track of you.

Re: Yay for Belgium

[Anonymous Coward]

Dont forget in firefox to set this

privacy.trackingprotection.enabled : true

stops facebook code on webpages

and privacy badger from eff

rgds

Re:Yay for Belgium

[allcoolnameswheretak]

Yea, we Europeans are really super extra great, not like Yankees... it is just that we like our goverments to treat us like babies who can't enter in to an agreement with a business

I expect my government to protect me so that I can focus on my life. I thought this was one of the reasons I pay taxes.
I would hope that keeping me safe from bullshit and invasive practices of corporations is part of that protection.

Calling that kind of government activity "babysitting" is what an ultra-capitalist american corporate shill would do.

Re:Yay for Belgium

[moronoxyd]

if the data controller or a third party has a legitimate interest in doing so, as long as this interest does not affect the interests of the data subject, or infringe on his or her fundamental rights, in particular the right to privacy. This provision establishes the need to strike a reasonable balance between the data controllers' business interests and the privacy of data subjects.

First of all: this is a directive (it is more than 2 decades old, and it become -some of its provisions- law in my country Greece just a couple of years ago), plus... read the the part in bold.

Yes, and directives are the basis for national laws, meaning that national laws have to at least reach that level.

Also, please explain to us how Facebooks interest in collecting data from people that are not Facebook members is more legitimate than the interest of said people not having their data collected by a company they have no contractual relationship with?

Re:Yay for Belgium

[Lennie]

"we like our goverments to treat us like babies who can't enter in to an agreement with a business"

Let's be clear:

This court case is, among other things, about the like- and connect-buttons Facebook uses to track people on other websites on the web even if they have NO agreement with this company.

Re:Yay for Belgium

[Lennie]

Even Mark Zuckerberg likes privacy, who would have thought ?:

http://www.businessinsider.com...

Re:Yay for Belgium

[The Grim Reefer]

Doesn't this mean that if any country legalizes pot or prostitution it's legal everywhere in the EU ?

Obviously not, as both are legal in the Netherlands. Well I suppose pot isn't technically legal, but you can buy it at coffee shops.

Prostitution is legal in at least one state in the US, but not in all. Pot is also legal in a couple of states for recreational use, and even more for medicinal purposes. However it's illegal in most, and all use is illegal at the federal level.

Re:I love Facebook.

[davester666]

By turning your computer off.

Millions of people don't use Facebook, and Facebook ignores their privacy and rents their information to whomever gives them a dollar.