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Facebook Must Stop Tracking Belgian Users, Court Rules (mercurynews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the stop-it-while-you-can dept.

Facebook must stop tracking Belgian users' surfing outside the social network and delete data it's already gathered, or it will face fines of 250,000 ($312,000) euros a day, a Belgian court ruled. From a report: Facebook "doesn't sufficiently inform" clients about the data it gathers on their broader web use, nor does it explain what it does with the information or say how long it stores it, the Brussels Court of First Instance said in a statement. The social network is coming under increasing fire in Europe, with a high-profile German antitrust probe examining whether it unfairly compels users to sign up to restrictive privacy terms. Belgium's data-protection regulators have targeted the company since at least 2015 when a court ordered it to stop storing non-users' personal data.

13 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Do it or.... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That fine isn't enough to really deter Facebook, unfortunately. I'm not sure why fines aren't put as a percentage of income.

    That said, Belgium is actually standing up to tracking companies.

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    1. Re:Do it or.... by beelsebob · · Score: 2

      That fine is 0.25% of facebook's revenue, or 5% of their profit. They sure as hell are going to pay attention to a fine that size.

    2. Re:Do it or.... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      250k/day for the local Facebook subsidiary is significant, and only the start. If they ignore it then the regulator can apply for further sanctions, contempt of court etc. Facebook staff can potentially go to jail.

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    3. Re:Do it or.... by cayenne8 · · Score: 2

      That said, Belgium is actually standing up to tracking companies.

      You know, there's not much I'd like to see of Europe brought into the US (its ok for them, but I like things mostly how they are here).....BUT, I would like to see privacy rights and some restrictions on the unfettered gathering and sharing/selling of people's data by companies like FB.

      I'd especially like it, if FB was mandated to remove any information or 'shadow' profiles of people that have NEVER even opted to join FB.

      There are reasons people don't join FB and there is no reason for Facebook to gather, store and track people that are not a member of their site/organization.

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    4. Re:Do it or.... by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      Of course if Facebook decides it is more profitable to pay the fine, then they are opening the door for more governments to make such a rule, so they can bring in Facebook bucks into their economy. $113,880,000 a year which can fund some nice project. So if Facebook pays other countries may want in too. If they follow the same principal of about $10 per citizen a year. That can chew up a lot of money very quickly.

      It will probably be a better plan for Facebook to fix the issue to comply with the law, if not because of their income, but to make sure it doesn't become a habit.

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    5. Re:Do it or.... by gnick · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There are reasons people don't join FB and there is no reason for Facebook to gather, store and track people that are not a member of their site/organization.

      There's every reason to track non-members. You may not think it's fair, but your data is valuable and it's going to get collected, used, and sold whether you like it or not. There are steps you can take to slow that down (like not signing up for FB), but you're not going to stop it without help from the lawmakers.

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    6. Re:Do it or.... by sconeu · · Score: 2

      Yes, but given that non-members have NOT agreed to the T&C, what legal right does FB have to track them?

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    7. Re:Do it or.... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 2

      The fine is 15MM euro a month. Dec. 2017 they had 10,451 MM euro in revenue. That's not close to 0.25%, it's 0.15%. But their month over month revenue growth is huge, and year over year as well. So that's likely to be far lower than that already.

      If they're still in growth mode (ala Uber) then losing money to fines to lock things down is expected. It's not clear they can grow to more users, but they can grow more intrusively into their lives.

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    8. Re:Do it or.... by beelsebob · · Score: 2

      And the answer is "EU law".

    9. Re:Do it or.... by Z00L00K · · Score: 2

      But how about their revenue in Belgium where this is an issue right now?

      The next step is the EU GDPR directive, that one is going to be a royal pain in the butt for Facebook and similar services. At the EU level the fines would be higher.

      Lawful Basis For Processing
      Data can only be processed if there is at least one lawful basis to do so[15]. The lawful bases for processing data are:

              the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes.
              processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract.
              processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject.
              processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person.
              processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
              processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data, in particular where the data subject is a child.
      Consent
      Where consent is used as the lawful basis for processing, consent must be explicit for data collected and the purposes data are used for (Article 7; defined in Article 4). Consent for children[16] must be given by the child’s parent or custodian, and verifiable (Article 8). Data controllers must be able to prove "consent" (opt-in) and consent may be withdrawn.[17]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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  2. FB ratchets up data collection in response by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    Welcome to Facebook!

    In order to determine if you are a Belgian user, Facebook now requires access to:

    * Your photo library
    * Your location for the last five years
    * Certain medical records
    * Microphone always on to detect Belgian accent
    * All history of waffle making

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  3. Re:How do I become a Belgian citizen by Presence+Eternal · · Score: 2

    So, if this law is enforced, just going to throw this out there, might it be possible to change location to someplace in Belgium? A little spoofing might force Facebook to clear all your existing internet history?

  4. What about Windows 10? by Stan92057 · · Score: 2

    Windows 10 is data mining and more on mega levels, far passing anything FB is doing.

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