

Facebook faces class action suit over EU privacy laws - dataker
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32229285

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khoury
So we are talking about, what, 13, 14 million dollars plus maybe court
expenses, naively guessing? In any case, it's a bigger step for the people
than it is as a harm for FB. I hope cases like this eventually make a
difference in the course of tech evolution, if that's even a correct sentence.
Power to the people, so to speak.

~~~
rmc
Court could order Facebook to change the Like button.

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estefan
...to a Meh button?

~~~
kagamine
No, the problem is that it isn't _only_ a button, it's a tracker and it breaks
EU-law. Right now it is "meh - other people's, other countries privacy laws"
from FB, we'll see if the EU stands up for European people against US data
collection without permission.

I honestly hope this damages FBs reputation and leads to a decline in user
numbers if only for other (better, I hope) service to emerge. Something that
has a moral/ethical compass.

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_cipher_
Is this only about facebook tracking users via the like buttons on websites?

If so, I'm expecting the same reaction in the future about google analytics.

From the other hand, {facebook,google,random company} did not force someone to
put the appropriate {buttons,code} in their site. Me thinks there's going to
be some kind of settlement without too much fuss and they'll keep doing
business as usual for an even more sucky web.

~~~
tuacker
They/Schrems have been at it for a while now. They initially tried to go
through the Irish DPC (Data Protection Commissioner)[1] but that wasn't very
fruitful. In 2013 they issued complaints in 3 different countries. Again no
outcome[2] (see 'reactions'). Now they're at this lawsuit[3] regarding the
following violations:

    
    
       - Data use policy which is invalid under EU law
       - The absence of effective consent to many types of data use
       - Support of the NSA’s ‘PRISM’ surveillance programme
       - Tracking of Internet users on external websites (e.g. through ‘Like buttons’)
       - Monitoring and analysis of users through ‘big data’ systems
       - Unlawful introduction of ‘Graph Search’
       - Unauthorised passing on of user data to external applications
    

Some more information about the suit can be found here
[https://www.fbclaim.com/ui/page/faqs](https://www.fbclaim.com/ui/page/faqs)

[1] [http://www.europe-v-
facebook.org/EN/Complaints/complaints.ht...](http://www.europe-v-
facebook.org/EN/Complaints/complaints.html)

[2] [http://www.europe-v-
facebook.org/EN/Complaints/PRISM/prism.h...](http://www.europe-v-
facebook.org/EN/Complaints/PRISM/prism.html)

[3] [http://www.europe-v-
facebook.org/EN/Complaints/Class_Action/...](http://www.europe-v-
facebook.org/EN/Complaints/Class_Action/class_action.html)

