Facebook has been condemned by a German court over its terms of service and the default privacy settings it uses. Of course the biggest social network, immediately appealed.
In the present case, the litigation was between Facebook, and the Federation of German Consumer Organizations, or VZBV from the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband.
VZBV is reported to have a problem with the Friend Finder tool, the use of user photos in social ads, and the exchange of data between WhatsApp and Facebook.
This time, the Berlin District Court agreed with VZBV that Facebook is violating the German data protection law by collecting data from its users without providing them with the information they need to make a different choice.
The court said Facebook's default settings violate the law: the app for cell phones automatically collects information from users who share their location, and user profiles are visible by default to search engines.
The judges also agreed that eight of Facebook's terms and conditions did not meet the legal requirements required for users to consent because they are too complex.
Οι όροι αυτοί συμπεριλαμβάνουν προκατασκευασμένες δηλώσεις που επιτρέπουν στο Facebook να έχει το δικαίωμα να χρησιμοποιεί τα ονόματα και τις εικόνες προφίλ των χρηστών του στις διαφημίσεις που προβάλλει, αλλά και να προωθεί τα δεδομένα που συλλέγει στις USA.
The same is true of the Facebook term that forces service members to use their real names.
VZBV is unconvinced that these practices are not legal.
“Online service providers must allow users to use them services anonymize them, for example by using a pseudonym," said VZBV policy officer Heiko Dünkel, pointing to the German Telemedia Act.
The court issued its decision in mid-January, but the ruling was published on Monday.
A Facebook representative said that the company has already changed its policies since the case began in 2015 and will soon change them again.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will enter into force in May of 2018, will bring much stricter privacy rules across the European Union.
Companies like Facebok should change the way they manage their personal data.
Header image Taz.
