Belgian justice today ordered Facebook to stop, within 48 hours, "monitoring" Internet users without their consent, threatening that otherwise it would impose a fine of 250.000 euros per day on the company.
This decision, taken by the Dutch Court of First Instance in Brussels, concerns users who are not members of the US social networking site and who, unlike those who have a Facebok account, have not given their approval to the company to collect the their data.
The Belgian Commission for the Protection of the Private Life (CPVP) has been brought to justice.
The judge "ordered the social networking site Facebook to stop monitoring and recording the internet use of persons connected to it from Belgium, within 48 hours of this decision being announced" to the parties concerned, the court said in a statement. court. "If Facebook ignores this order, it will have to pay 250.000 euros every 24 hours to the CPVP," the statement added.
The judge's decision concerns the recording by Facebook of the so-called "cookies", the small files that the websites use to "identify" their users, keeping their data. Facebook maintains cookies that record a user when they visit a page — for example, a friend's wall — as well as his or her other "activities" if he or she has visited an online store, a political party page, or any other page. explained the court.
“So they keep cookies on the potential interests and preferencespricesions of internet users. These cookies are kept for two years and Facebook can consult them every time a user visits a Facebook page or a website from which they can like or recommend (the content of the website) to other Facebook users.” the decision continues.
The judge held that these are personal data that the Facebook it may only use them if the user gives his consent, as provided for in the Belgian legislation on the protection of privacy.
"If the user maintains a Facebook account, we can accept that he has given his consent, but if he does not have a Facebook account, then Facebook should in the future clearly ask for his permission and give the necessary explanations" , the judge concluded.
Source: Mouse
