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Google, Facebook In EU Probe Over User Data (mercurynews.com) 14

European officials have launched a "preliminary" investigation into Facebook and Google in order to determine how people's information is used for ad purposes. The Mercury News reports: The European Commission, which oversees antitrust issues for the European Unions, said it has opened a preliminary investigation into Facebook and Google in order to determine if the two companies are adhering to new regulations meant to give individuals more power over how their personal information is used by social networks and other tech companies. That law, called General Data Protection Law (GDPR), went into effect across the European Union in 2018. "The Commission has sent out questionnaires as part of our preliminary investigations into Google's and Facebook's data practices," said an EC spokesperson in a statement given to this news organization. "These investigations concern the way data is gathered processed used and monetized, including for advertising purposes. The preliminary investigations are ongoing." A Google spokesperson said in a statement, "We use data to make our services more useful and to show relevant advertising, and we give people the controls to manage, delete or transfer their data. We will continue to engage with the Commission and others on this important discussion for our industry."

Facebook didn't comment on the matter.
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Google, Facebook In EU Probe Over User Data

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  • great so... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by johnjones ( 14274 ) on Monday December 02, 2019 @09:22PM (#59478814) Homepage Journal

    while the EU commission likes fines personally I would prefer legislation that means the data is portable that includes the profiling data...

    for example if you take all your connections data out of facebook at the moment then you do not receive your contacts actual details i.e. phone number or email address they use to sign in
    this makes it impossible to setup a rival social network since people can not establish those connections
    (facebook might hide behind privacy on this case but they previously allowed yahoo access to that data to populate address books... So really allowing "friends" by default to have the email address would not be a change... they could opt people out)

    advertiser Profile wise it would be very interesting how they are targeting and allow the ability to delete that data...

    allowing data portability and actual access should be the goal but I'm going to guess its actually a fine...
         

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      That's really a tangential issue.

      The problem with companies like Facebook and Google is that they have a long history of illegal data harvesting, collecting data on people who have not even signed up to their services. Even those who have signed up they have taken data illegally from, for example, for a long while the Facebook website asked me to fill in my phone number, but the text box it provides to do so is pre-populated with my phone number, they know they need my permission to hold this data, yet it's

    • This is about those companies abusing that information to gain power over you.
      E.g. to manipulate you into losing money on things that are sub-optimal or harmful to you. (Like losing money is already.)

      You seem to think that if we knew everything about you, all would be fine.
      . . .
      With corporations that, if necessary even literally, put exponential explosive profits above human lives and the existence of any life on this planet. And are forcef by shareholders to do so too.
      . . .
      May I introduce Cardinal Richelie

    • Re:great so... (Score:4, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @06:40AM (#59479730) Homepage Journal

      There is already legislation for that. GDPR includes a data portability clause which means they have to let you export your data in a reasonable format.

      The main issue at the moment is that it's often impossible if you don't have an account. I had to take Paypal, Apple and Facebook to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to get them to hand over my data without having an account first.

      The issue here is that Facebook isn't handing over all the data it is legally required to, it is withholding some.

  • by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @04:58AM (#59479578)

    The crazy shit they are doing, over in the US (e.g. the Ring camera totalitarian nightmare), warrants having a very close eye on them at all times.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Unfortunately they sell Ring cameras in the UK too. If any of my neighbours get one they are getting hit with GDPR requests until they remove it.

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