Facebook has received charges from a Belgian court that could include fine of $125 million it the site continues to break privacy laws by tracking people on third-party websites. In the case, which was brought into notice by a privacy watchdog of Belgium, the court has also ruled that the social media giant had to delete all the data it had illegally acquired, including the data about Belgian citizens who are not using the social media platform. If Facebook does not comply with the court order, it will be fined with 250,000 euros a day or up to 100 million euros. The social media company has issued a statement that it will be filing an appeal against the ruling.
The court said, “Facebook informs us insufficiently about gathering information about us, the kind of data it collects, what it does with that data and how long it stores it. It also does not gain our consent to collect and store all this information.”
The Belgian courts indicated that Facebook was tracking user behavior through various means, even if the users are not on the social media platform. Facebook was placing cookies and invisible pixels on third-party websites to track online behavior of people.
The social media company had something else to say. According to Facebook, they are using industry standard technologies for data collection processes. Furthermore, it gives users the right to opt out of such data collection activities on websites and applications off its platform.
Speaking on this Richard Allan, Vice President of Public Policy at Facebook stated, ““We’ll comply with this new law, just as we’ve complied with existing data protection law in Europe.”
The privacy watchdog of Belgium has welcomed this ruling from the court and said, “Facebook has just launched a large campaign where they stress the importance of privacy. We hope they will now make this a reality.”
