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European Privacy Regulators Take Coordinated Action Against Facebook

Posted by BeauHD on from the coordinated-action dept.

An anonymous reader writes: European privacy regulators from as number of countries has made a coordinated action against Facebook for violating data protection laws. The French CNIL has sanctioned Facebook with a 150,000 EUR fine, and the regulator from Netherlands is considering a similar action. Regulators are concerned with new privacy policies of Facebook, lack of transparency, cookie handling and tracking Facebook users on third-party sites -- all without user knowledge or control. Such coordinated move is unprecedented in the history of European data protection regulators.

53 comments

  1. 150,000 EUR? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What percent of Facebook's revenue is that? 0.00001%?

    These regulators better grow some teeth if they want to be taken seriously.

    1. Re:150,000 EUR? by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Currently they're still slapping wrists. It started in that ballpark with Microsoft, too.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:150,000 EUR? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Currently they're still slapping wrists. It started in that ballpark with Microsoft, too.

      Have you ever had your wrists slapped? It hurts!

    3. Re:150,000 EUR? by Schmorgluck · · Score: 3, Informative

      They're not "pushing policy around the globe", they're regulating the activities of a company in Europe.

      --
      There's nothing like $HOME
    4. Re:150,000 EUR? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What percent of Facebook's revenue is that? 0.00001%?

      These regulators better grow some teeth if they want to be taken seriously.

      They don't want to risk pissing off Facebook. They just need to look like they are doing something so that their constituents think they are "tackling the tough issues" -like big American companies not respecting their authority.

      But in the end, they know not to bite the hand that feeds them.

  2. Shouldn't they go after Google first? by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    Regulators are concerned with new privacy policies of Facebook, lack of transparency, cookie handling and tracking Facebook users on third-party sites -- all without user knowledge or control.

    Yeah, I'm concerned with all of those things pertaining to Facebook, too. But I'm way more concerned about Google doing precisely the same things, since they do so much more of them.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Shouldn't they go after Google first? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yep, and Google is much more deeply embedded into the fabric of the modern web. Almost every major page loads things from a bunch of Google domains, or uses their captcha system, etc. I block everything Facebook related and have noticed no adverse effects on the web, but if you block Google, a ton of things simply will not function.

    2. Re:Shouldn't they go after Google first? by thsths · · Score: 1

      Indeed. And what about the tracking of not-users, both by Facebook and by Google? That would seem distinctly worse to me.

  3. Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2

    To me, this is a lot like publishers that demand Google pay to index them, and when Google says, OK, it's opt in, you see publishers fall on their swards when their traffic dies. If Facebook pulled out og the EU for even a week, public outcry would be enormouse. Seriously, anyone who doesn't understand what's going on with Facebook and FREE consumer accounts is a moron.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by moronoxyd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Seriously, anyone who doesn't understand what's going on with Facebook and FREE consumer accounts is a moron.

      This case is about Facebook tracking people who don't have a FB account. Since these people don't have a FB account they did not agree to anything. And Facebook had been told a year ago to stop this and they didn't.
      Do these facts (that you would have known about if you read articles about this before you commented here) affect you statement in any way? Or are you one of those people that complain about anything just for the kicks?

    2. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If Facebook pulled out og the EU for even a week, public outcry would be enormouse.

      Doubtful. Anyway, law is law, the public can change it indirectly via elections but luckily not directly. The fines could get substantially higher if Facebook doesn't comply.

      Seriously, anyone who doesn't understand what's going on with Facebook and FREE consumer accounts is a moron.

      The law prescribes that the storage of personal data must fulfill certain standards, it is completely irrelevant whether the accounts are free or not. It's not different from anything else related to consumer protection, e.g. if a vacuum cleaner is given away for free that doesn't mean it's okay if it electrocutes you.

    3. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      If Facebook pulled out of the EU for a week, we'd have a paradise on Earth.

      People would talk to each other. Folks would have something to do besides click Likes. Cancer would suddenly be cured.

      God bless you.

    4. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by sit1963nz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously, the USA does not run the world.

      94% of the worlds population lives outside the USA
      80% of the worlds GDP is outside the USA.

      The USA has far more to loose than the rest of the world. Most of the big players earn MORE outside the USA than they do inside, if they were forced to choose they would choose the world over the USA. The US is a saturated market with little growth potential, the growth potential in the rest of the world is HUGE.

      Start pissing off the world and over 2/3 of the US economy could disappear (bring the US down to 6% of the worlds GDP in line with its population)

    5. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Opportunist · · Score: 1, Funny

      Do you really want that? Why do you want to increase productivity in Europe, are you some kind of commie?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

      For about a week until Gesichterbuch and livre de visages get launched.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    7. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That would be wonderful!

    8. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed; it's fine if they track THEIR users, who signed up for that shit, but not everyone who has not agreed.

      I'd make the very same argument about Google.

    9. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Knightman · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm afraid that we would then have food riots in 10 months time due to the incredible population growth...

      --
      --- Reality doesn't care about your opinions, it happens anyway and if you are in the way you'll get squished.
    10. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How does facebook track people who don't have a facebook account, and don't use their site?

    11. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by sit1963nz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Its not about USING Facebook, its that even when you are NOT a Facebook user, Facebook tracks you and builds a profile anyway.

    12. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You see this USA USA USA We're Number #1! shit everywhere whenever another country shows backbone to US corporate interests. I'm sure there are some people who are really that deluded, but I'm also sure that some of it is just pro-plutocracy shilling.

      The European Union has a population 50% larger than the USA, an arguably larger economy (it depends on how you measure GDP, but we're happy with number 2 if that's how you want to count it) and far more potential for growth. China has four times the number of people, and is going to sail past both the EU and the US in terms of GDP in the next 5-10 years.

      The USA was once the leader of the free world; now it's an international laughing stock throwing the full might of its bloated military industrial complex against every threat, real or imagined, whilst live-tweeting its own failures. Meanwhile its citizens cling to the American Dream whilst their ruling class squeezes every last dollar out of them and into their offshore accounts whilst blasting them with propaganda and vapid entertainments and convincing them that paradise is just a scratchcard away, and that their plight is because of the evil Reds/Yellows/Greens/Blacks/Irish/Italians/Jews/Muslims/Vegans/Liberal Elite/Wall Street/Whatever-it-is-this-week that they are told to be frightened of.

      The USA has lots of excellent people: first class minds, talented creators, hard-working, kind and generous souls. It has awesome natural beauty, plentiful natural resources and opportunity for real and sustainable growth. But you guys are throwing all that into the meat-grinder of maximised quarterly profits, and for what? So you can watch your kid grow up poorer than you were whilst some jackass fund manager spends their retirement savings on a bigger megayacht to keep anchored off his tax haven of choice?

    13. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by lokedhs · · Score: 4, Interesting
      A lot of people share their address books with google. That allows them to integrate everyone in those address books into the social graphs regardless of whether they have an account or not.

      If I don't have an FB account, but two of my friends do, and I'm in their address books then they know who I am, and that I know these people. Since they also have my phone number they have a good idea where I live as well. FB now also knows that these two people are close, given the fact that they have a common friend.

      Then keep in mind that FB has a lot of photos, and I wouldn't be surprised if they can use that information to associate a picture with people who don't have accounts. Does FB allow you to tag a photo with the name of a person who doesn't have an account?

      It is well known that FB has "shadow" accounts in their system for people who are known but hasn't actually created an account yet. I certainly would like to see them stop that activity.

    14. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Tom · · Score: 1

      If Facebook pulled out of the EU for a week, we'd have a paradise on Earth.

      Not to mention by the end of the week, everyone would be on some competitor site and FB would lose its grip on the social media sphere.

      We might finally have social instead of anti-social media. Where you own your site and content and just have a standard way of linking to others.

      Not, of course, that anyone would allow that to happen, too much advertisement money at stake.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    15. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Seriously, the USA does not run the world.

      94% of the worlds population lives outside the USA

      Let's talk about this in terms of per capita. More along the lines of your:

      80% of the worlds GDP is outside the USA./Q

      Let's subtract all USA-originated aid, grants, offshored dollars (into shells), remittances, and "international programs" funding predominantly by the USA, then we can talk about "world" GDP.

      p.s. I may wind-up in the EU as a citizen too by the way--I just don't care to suffer the anti-USA bigotry of mis-educated nitwits. Most freakin' Chinese, who live in a damn info bubble with constant propaganda, appreciate the true position of the US relative EU many have told me something along the lines of "damn, when are you going to stop paying for those stupid farts?"

    16. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by fgouget · · Score: 1

      For about a week until Gesichterbuch and livre de visages get launched.

      No. In France we've had Face de Bouc for a long time already.

    17. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With the notable exception of funding terrorist groups and dictatorships in conflict areas, the US provides substantially less international funds per capita than most other developed nations.

    18. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously? Paying for those stupid farts? The trade deficit of the USA (#1 deficit in the world) is bigger than the trade surplus of China and Germany (#1 and #2 surplus) combined. Money flows to the USA. Not the other way around. The only appreciable thing USA does in return for infinite credit is keep military bases in the EU (which, granted, are financed by the USA, and license EU members to neglect their own armies). There is in fact a very clear pattern: basically all countries with big trade surpluses, except China and Russia, which have their own rationale for tolerating big surpluses with certain countries, are clients that depend on USA protection. In order of absolute trade surplus: Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Netherlands, Kuwait, Italy, Norway, South Korea. Coincidence?

    19. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In addition to tracking you through your friends, they can track you through web-pages that embed facebook elements (like the facebook button) even if you never opened facebook.com intentionally.

    20. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      (insert tasteless joke about Muslims and goat fucking here)

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    21. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many other countries rely on exports to the US, so they would be destroying their own economies if they somehow brought about a large drop in the US economy (notice that when the US had it's Great Recession it impacted much of the world). Over time the demographics will cause a shift where the US economic dominance declines in a gradual, natural manner in terms of % of world GDP.

      One of the current big sticking points is where countries can park their assets. The default place is currently US Bonds. So if some countries joined together to tank the US economy all the countries with significant holdings in US bonds would be devastated (I'm assuming the US would use inflation of the USD to deal with the economic distress).

    22. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the best comment I've read on the internet in years. Thanks for the smiles.

    23. Re:Facebook Should Say Goodby To EU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Start pissing off the world and over 2/3 of the US economy could disappear (bring the US down to 6% of the worlds GDP in line with its population)

      Good luck with that. Lemme know how it goes will ya?

  4. unprecedented... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    sent to you on a win10 machine using chrome.

  5. Disclosures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since people mindlessly click on disclosures and approvals FB should update those, refuse to pay the fines and bill the regulators for the compliance costs. Fines work both ways. Or do now.

  6. Re:150 thousand euros! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yeah almost 10 times the economy of a trump voting state.

  7. ok, so i hate facebook and all... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...cookie handling and tracking Facebook users on third-party sites -- all without user knowledge or control.

    Yeah, I hate Facebook and never signed up for it because it seemed like a bad idea from the start. But how, exactly are those things happening "without user knowledge?" I block all that shit, but if I didn't, I can certainly view their cookies and tracking shit on third party sites, see the "like" buttons visually, and so on. It's talked about in the mainstream media even. I think there's a presumption of reasonableness there: if people don't even bother to look, or are willfully ignorant, they can hardly complain about not knowing.

    150,000 EUR fine

    Is that a joke of some sort? 150K Euros fine? For Facebook?

    1. Re:ok, so i hate facebook and all... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And one more thing: those absolutely ARE under user control. I block all FB shit, because fuck FB. Doing so is demonstrably under my control, so that sentence is simply false.

      Now, some users might chose to use computers where control is retained by the company selling the device, or particular browsers that do not give you that level of control, but that's a separate problem, and it was entirely the user's choice to do that. If you make those choices, you can't exactly complain about not having control any more.

      There are a shitload of problems with Facebook, without making them up.

    2. Re:ok, so i hate facebook and all... by NoZart · · Score: 1

      Some friend of you is using Facebook. Your contact data is now on Facebook. Someone took pictures at the party you were, too. Posted it on Facebook. Other people might reference you by name in their posts.
      So now FB starts to build a shadow profile by connecting all this meta data.

      How effective this is i found out by signing up to Facebook. I did VERY late (around 2015 or something) and right after i put in my details Facebook showed me all my real life friends to connect to. It was downright scary.

  8. Anything to do with Trump, Brexit, etc.? by matbury6017 · · Score: 1

    I wonder if this move has anything to do with what the Guardian did a story on: "The Great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked" https://www.theguardian.com/te...

    Apparently, there are some mercenary individuals who run companies who are capable of significantly influencing the outcomes of elections through manipulating social media and using people's personal social media data to target them during election campaigns. Although, thinking about it, isn't that what the "old media" have always done? I guess they object to Donald Trump and Nigel Farage more than previous campaigners... Oh, and the story is run by an "old media" outlet.

    1. Re:Anything to do with Trump, Brexit, etc.? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      There is an individual called Gina Miller who took the Government to court over Brexit eventually forcing a commons vote, which voted strongly in favour thus making her whole campaign pointless. She stated it was always about the common vote but that's agreed to be complete bollocks, it was about stopping Brexit in it's tracks and bugger the Referendum result.

      She is now crowd-funding to raise money to support MP's in their election campaigns who are anti-Brexit [and sailing close to the wind on Election Funding laws but not breaking them].

      There is a lot of conjecture on who funded her legal campaign. Barristers are extremely expensive to engage in the UK and the major "Magic Circle" law firms are not exactly paragons of pro-bono.

      The conjecture is on George Soros who may well have a track record of funding various disruptive campaigns.

      Anyway, with Brexit some of the major players may decide that the European laws and regulators are getting as bit too stringent and then move their offices to London where they can stick two fingers up at the EU regulators.

  9. Add 3 zeroes to the fine. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Really. A pox on humanity like facebook deserves a fine of at least 150,000,000 (whatever currency) for privacy violations.

  10. Re: 150 thousand euros! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Butthurt much?

  11. hosts file by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't like facebook or ubiquitous online tracking? Me either. My hosts file includes these entries:

    127.0.0.1 facebook.com
    127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
    127.0.0.1 ssl.facebook.com
    127.0.0.1 *.facebook.com
    127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
    127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com
    127.0.0.1 vortex-win.data.microsoft.com

    I don't miss any of them.

  12. And IP addresses by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

    IMPORTANT: Block the following both inbound (cookies) and outbound ("Like" buttons") traffic

    31.13.24.0/21
    31.13.64.0/18
    66.220.144.0/20
    69.63.176.0/20
    69.171.224.0/19
    74.119.76.0/22
    103.4.96.0/22
    173.252.64.0/18
    204.15.20.0/22

    --

    I'm not repeating myself
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  13. Grammar? by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

    European privacy regulators from as number of countries has made

    WTF don't you even proofread this shit?

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  14. Turn the tables by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... and take coordinated action against the governments of the continent that brought us Stalin and Hitler.

  15. Ouch by easyTree · · Score: 1

    EU asks FB to buy it a coffee.

    --
    Requiem for the American Dream