French Gov't Gives Facebook 3 Months To Stop Tracking Non-User Browsers

Reader iamthecheese writes RT reports that France's National Commission of Information and Freedoms found Facebook tracking of non-user browsers to be illegal. Facebook has three months to stop doing it. The ruling points to violations of members and non-members privacy in violation of an earlier ruling. The guidance, published last October, invalidates safe harbor provisions. If Facebook fails to comply the French authority will appoint someone to decide upon a sanction. Related: A copy of the TPP leaked last year no longer requires signing countries to have a safe harbor provision.

Comments

Re:Works for me

[gstoddart]

Well, too bad you've not taken ownership of your own privacy and blocked them.

France is saying "no, you can't track people who don't even know they're being tracked and aren't visiting your web site". Until the country you lives in passes privacy laws .. you've got to do it on your own. Sadly, most normal internet users have been tracked by these parasites who feel it's their right to do so.

The amount of websites which have Facebook, Twitter, or any of dozens of other sites which track you even if you don't visit them is mind boggling.

So when those companies say "boo hoo, stop blocking out ads", you need to say "fuck you, I don't consent to being tracked by 15 3rd parties" and use your own blockers.

Most other governments are too much on the fucking payroll to limit what companies can do. The US sure as hell will never to do, the US is pretty much the international champion of the rights of corporations to be douchebags. If your government isn't going to force them to stop tracking you, then you really need to do it yourself.

And, honestly, even if your government tries, you need to do it yourself.

I applaud trying to block this, but the scale on which this shit happens is beyond understanding to anybody who isn't in full possession of their own tinfoil hat.

My primary browser? It can't even see facebook.com. If you're not actively defending yourself from this shit, you're already being tracked, whether you know it or not.

Re:Youtube next?

[JaredOfEuropa]

Fair points, but those concerned with privacy take issue with that last remark, that you can use that data however you want. Many countries have laws that may not forbid the collection of data outright, but put limitations on how you can use the data and what for. Often, there is a law that says that you may only use the data for the stated reasons you collected it, and never sell it on to third parties. And there's such a thing as implied reasons and reasonable expectations: the purpose of Facebook's "like" button is ostensibly to allow FB members to show approval for a site, and perhaps to entice non members to sign up. Visitors and site owners rightfully do not expect that button to track them. By the same token, people can reasonably expect to end up in a server log if they visit a site with embedded images. But the implied reason for collecting a server log is to diagnose issues and compile aggregated site statistics, not to track individual users. And tracking cookies can get a lot more information than you can glean from your server logs.

FB's practise of tracking users through their Like button clearly violates privacy regulations in a number of countries. And even so, I don't think legislators are looking to stop people from collecting server logs or to ban 3rd party cookies. They are however putting limits on what companies can do with the data.