German court rules Facebook use of personal data illegal

[ItsMitch]

Facebook is getting it's personal data policies dragged through the mug in Germany as their courts are now ruling their handling of personal data illegal. Reuters has the story

 

 

Quote

 

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German consumer rights group said on Monday that a court had found Facebook’s use of personal data to be illegal because the U.S. social media platform did not adequately secure the informed consent of its users.

The verdict, from a Berlin regional court, comes as Big Tech faces increasing scrutiny in Germany over its handling of sensitive personal data that enables it to micro-target online advertising.

The Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzvb) said that Facebook’s default settings and some of its terms of service were in breach of consumer law, and that the court had found parts of the consent to data usage to be invalid.

“Facebook hides default settings that are not privacy-friendly in its privacy center and does not provide sufficient information about it when users register,” said Heiko Duenkel, litigation policy officer at the vzvb.

“This does not meet the requirement for informed consent.” The vzvb posted a copy of the ruling on its website. A court spokesperson confirmed that a judgment had been handed down but declined further comment.

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Facebook has said it'll be planning on appealing the ruling and they've "updated their guidelines on the handling of data"

Quote

 

Facebook said it would appeal, even though several aspects of the court judgment had been in its favor. In a statement, it said it had already made significant changes to its terms of service and data protection guidelines since the case was first brought in 2015.

“We are working hard to ensure that our guidelines are clear and easy to understand, and that the services offered by Facebook are in full accordance with the law,” Facebook said.

Further, Facebook would in the meantime update its data protection guidelines and its terms of service so that they comply with new European Union-wide rules that are due to enter force in June.

 

Oh well, Facebook getting chewed up in court must be really fun for them to handle, I'm personally glad that the german court has agreed to this, should get them to fuck off from using all of our data.

Source: 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-facebook/german-court-rules-facebook-use-of-personal-data-illegal-idUSKBN1FW1FI

[Ryujin2003]

25 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Whats the point? Are they just gonna fine Facebook and practically nothing ends up getting changed for privacy and data protection? Facebook might say they did shit to comply but I'm certain nothing really changes at the back end. It would be more interesting if they took direct action and domain + IP block all of Facebook's services at the ISP level across the entire country. Those who insist on using Facebook can use VPN or other methods but can no longer complain about how their data is being used and abused by Facebook.

The point is the EU's GDPR that is supposed to take effect later this year.

 

Would you like to know more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation

[TH3M4DR4TT3R]

Thanks for the interesting post. I stopped using Facebook because of the way it handled it's data and so can other people. The only way companies ever change is if their bottom line suffers, if people voted with their feet and revenues went down then Facebook might change it data policies.

Really good post though...

[Ryujin2003]

9 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Yes but all it says is that companies handling user data must comply to X, comply to Y, else they will be sanctioned in the form of audits and hefty fines.

This is merely deterrence and companies will weigh the cost-benefit of continuing malpractice. Also they still have the opportunity to sweep the dirt under the rug to appear clean.

What people really need is not the perception of safety through faith, but HARD protection. Why settle on preventative measures when you can go straight to immunization?

I absolutely agree with you on your last point. Unfortunately, this is a tech forum, and most of us are "techie" in our own ways. The mass population of sheople aren't aware of this, and don't take the time and effort to be proactive in their own involvement. That is what has lead to companies not caring about consumer information outside of financial gain, and why governments feel the need to make policies because this is now becoming a social issue.

 

Yes, some of the stuff with GDPR is very vague, and it will be interesting to see. Because this applies to all EU citizens, their information on any external server, or any internal server regardless of information. Depending on the success of this, it will likely influence other larger governments to move into something similar. The abuse of information gathering is repulsive; however, me being smart and trying to manage my interactions and data availability online doesn't really have a large impact when I'm in the 1%. Change has to get made somewhere, and someone has to be the first to sink or swim.

 

I don't see what you mean about "sweep the dirt under the rug". Can you elaborate? Not being critical, I really have no idea what you're referring to. I'm not in the EU, so I can admit I am no expert by any means.

[Sauron]

19 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

What people really need is not the perception of safety through faith, but HARD protection. Why settle on preventative measures when you can go straight to immunization?

But then, what can you realistically do to that effect other than straight up obscure the site?

[Sauron]

47 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

To straight up obscure the site, and if masochists want to tunnel out of the protective wall, they can go right ahead but not expect protection from government measures.

Or if they are polite enough, to make blocking of social media sites an opt-out option through the ISP (with massive disclaimers)

I don't know man, that sort of government control over what is allowed on the internet doesn't sound like a good idea to me. We don't want to turn into China or Turkey.