Facebook was condemned for the illegal use of personal data

The German Regional Court acknowledged the use of Facebook personal data illegal, as the company in some cases does not ask for an open permission

Reuters reports.

The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZVB) reported that some of the Facebook settings set by default violate consumer law and that the court found parts of the consent to use data to be invalid.

"Facebook hides the default settings that violate privacy and do not inform users about it when registering," says Heiko Duenkel, a litigation expert at VZVB.

VZVB has published a copy of the decision on its website. The representative of the court confirmed that the decision was made, but refused further comment.

Facebook has filed a lawsuit against the court. However, the company will update its recommendations on data protection and service conditions to comply with new EU rules that should come into force in June.

Facebook, which has more than 2 billion users around the world, has already faced criticisms from German competition authorities through the processing of personal data.

The Federal Anti-Cartel Office said in December that it denied Facebook access to third-party data when it opened an account. In particular, we are talking about the services owned by the company - WhatsApp and Instagram. Moreover, Facebook sees which sites its clients use.

One of the problems pointed out by the Consumer Rights Protection Group is that Facebook Messenger has previously been activated a service that reveals the location of who is being chatted with. In addition, the privacy settings already featured items that allow search engines to quickly find a user profile.

Recently, Facebook began to advertise to its users the OnAV VPN application that they bought in 2013. In addition to the fact that the company officially does not disclose the connection with Onavo, the application also spy on the sites that people use, installed it.

In the nineties, the regulators began to struggle with the use of "cookies" sites. Europe has tougher legislation in this regard, requiring companies to request a clear and formalized permission to use them. Facebook has obviously learned to receive third-party data without cookies, which has caused concern in regulators.

-Let's remind, Mark Zuckerberg announced significant changes in Facebook: users will see fewer publications from the media, and more posts from their friends in the social network.

-After that, Zuckerberg's fortunes fell by $ 2.9 billion, as company stocks fell by 3.9%.

-In addition, Facebook will ask users about which news resources they are more trusting and, based on such polls, will regulate the news feed.

-Also, Mark Zuckerberg's company patented a technique for determining the socio-economic status of users.

-Also, the social network has released a children's variant of its messenger called Messenger Kids. Registration in Messenger Kids is made only through the account of one of the parents, because the policy of Facebook prohibits the creation of children's pages.

-But the former vice president of Facebook, Chamaty Palihapitiya, said in general that social networks "ruined the foundations of society", and apologized for participating in the creation of such instruments.

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