Dutch Court Finds Facebook Misused Data in Class Action Suit (reuters.com) 11
A Dutch court hearing a class action lawsuit on Wednesday found that a European subsidiary of Meta, Facebook Ireland, improperly used personal data of Dutch citizens between 2010 and 2020, saying the company had "violated the law." From a report: "Personal information was processed for the purposes of advertising when in this case that is not allowed," a summary of the Amsterdam court ruling said. "Personal information was given to third parties without Facebook users being informed and without there being a legal basis to do so." The decision was directed at Facebook Ireland because it is the part of the company that oversees the processing of Dutch user data. The case has not yet progressed to the phase where any damages could be claimed.
So how exactly is FB supposed to make $$? (Score:2)
"Personal information was processed for the purposes of advertising when in this case that is not allowed,"
I have a solution for FB:
Just advise users that *not* giving Facebook the wherewithal to use data for advertising will limit functionality or degrade the user's experience.
Most will simply agree, for Facebook has got what every company wishes it had - Numbers.
Lawfully? (Score:2)
I can't imagine a company with 44k employees not being able to figure out how to make money under the law. Maybe they hire one more who is a lawyer? To take on this particular challenge?
Facebook is in the business of breaking things and making money in the process. They've made a lot of money.
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Or is someone trying to apply law retroactively?
Re: So how exactly is FB supposed to make $$? (Score:2)
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Just telling the users would have been enough. There is better article here [businesswire.com], including a link to a PDF machine translation of the actual ruling [dataprivacystichting.com]. The court wrote:
Inadequately informing the Facebook user as a consumer about the use of personal data for commercial purposes was misleading. Indeed, the average consumer could not make an informed decision about participating in the Facebook service.
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Most will simply agree
Honestly this will happen anyway. Just tell users you're going to sell their data and use the proceeds to buy cocaine for Zuckerberg. They'll still agree.
Poor ol' Zuck (Score:2)
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Facebook signed a consent decree where they promised to stop violating privacy. How many times have they violated that contract?
Depends. Are you a lawyer? I suspect the contact will not be worded "I promise to stop violating privacy." Or maybe it is along with a 20 page appendix defining the definition of violating and a 40 page appendix to define privacy.
But... (Score:3)
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Isn't that their whole thing? (Score:1)