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February 17th, 2018 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : A court in the Belgian capital Brussels, on Friday, found the social media company Facebook guilty of breaching Belgian privacy laws. Belgium’s Privacy Commission had taken Facebook to court and the judge agreed with the Commission’s view that Facebook had flouted the country’s privacy legislation. The company has been ordered to correct its practice right away of face fines. Facebook has lodged an appeal.
Facebook follows its users activities by means of so-called social plug-ins, cookies, and pixels. These digital technologies enable Facebook to follow users’ behavior when online. Cookies, for example, are small files that are attached to your internet browser when you go online and visit a particular site. They are used to collect information about the kind of things you like to read or look at while surfing the web.
Facebook uses the data both for its own ends, but also to help advertisers send tailor made advertising. In so doing Facebook also uses certain cookies to follow people that don’t even have a Facebook profile.
The court ruled that it is “unclear what information Facebook is collecting about us” and “what it uses the information for”. Moreover, Facebook has not been given permission to keep tabs on internet-users by a court of law.
The court has ordered Facebook to stop the practice straight away and to delete any data that it has obtained by means contrary to Belgian privacy legislation. If Facebook fails to comply it will face a penalty payment of 250,000 euro/day.
The Head of the Privacy Commission Willem Debeuckelaere told Belgian media that he is satisfied with the verdict. “We are of course very stratified that the court accepted our argument in full. Facebook is currently running a big campaign stressing the importance of privacy. Let’s hope that they now put their words into practice”.
Facebook, for its part, has said that it is to appeal against the verdict. “We are disappointed with today’s verdict. Over the past few years we have worked hard to help people understand how we use cookies to show relevant content and to make Facebook secure. We have set up teams of people, from engineers to designers that are dedicated to protecting users’ privacy. We have also developed aids that give people choices and control.
CH/L – nsnbc 17.02.2018
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2018/02/17/belgian-court-finds-facebook-guilty-of-breaching-privacy-laws/
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