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FACEBOOK’S PRIVACY RULES are under fresh scrutiny in Germany after the country’s competition watchdog said it suspects the social networking site of abusing its dominant market position to make users hand over too much personal information.
The California-based company has repeatedly faced challenges to its terms of service in Germany and last week was ordered to pay a fine for making excessive demands on the intellectual property of its users.
“There is a preliminary suspicion that Facebook’s terms of use breach data protection rules,” Germany’s Federal Cartel Office said in a statement.
Facebook rejected claims of wrongdoing. “We are confident that we comply with the law and we look forward to working with the Federal Cartel Office to answer their questions,” said Tina Kulow, the company’s director of corporate communication for Northern, Central, Eastern Europe and Benelux.
The competition watchdog said its probe is directed against Facebook’s subsidiaries in Ireland and Hamburg, Germany.
“Market dominating companies have a special responsibility,” said Andreas Mundt, the head of the cartel office. Facebook’s collection of users’ personal data is important to the company’s advertising business and therefore warrants particular scrutiny, he said.
“In order to access the social network users must first agree to the collection and use of this data by declaring their consent to the terms of use,” the cartel office said. “The extent of the permissions granted is hard for users to comprehend”.
“There are considerable doubts about the admissibility of this practice especially under the current national data protection law,” it added.
Last month the company was fined €100,000 by a Berlin court for failing to narrow the rights that users have to grant Facebook to use their intellectual property, such as photos and videos.
Facebook has faced criticism from Germany’s politicians and regulators for months regarding its privacy practices and slow responses to anti-immigrant postings.
Its CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited the country last week to host a Q&A and met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to talk about limiting hate speech, but that has failed to ease fears over how it gathers and handles users’ data.
Elsewhere, it’s fighting its own battles in Brazil after its head of Latin America, Diego Dzodan, was detained by police.
Brazilian authorities have requested that WhatsApp hand over messages relating to multiple criminal investigations over the past few months. WhatsApp says it can’t since it doesn’t have them. Instead, they are encrypted and only exist on users’ phones.
He is expected to be released nearly 24 hours after it happened, according to Reuters.
For a short period in December, WhatsApp was blocked in Brazil for 48 hours after it failed to comply with two rulings to share information in a criminal case. It had lasted for about 12 hours before an appeals judge overturned it.
(Additional reporting by Quinton O’Reilly)
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‘Nation is a thorn in Company’s side’. That is a scary headline when you think of it.
When will Facebook get their own Private Military Force I wonder?
I’d imagine they’ve intelligence gathering capabilities to put most governments to shame.
And we happily give it that information out.
Imagine if “the government” told us it was now the law that we had to give all that personal data, and carry it around on a tracking device.
We would have all the lefties AND righties screaming blue murder.
Bill you can leave Facebook any time you’d like and that’s the end of their ability to track you, I’m not sure Government enforced tracking is even remotely similar.
Not true, you don’t have to use Facebook to be tracked by it.
All the bleaters who give out about the state and big brother watching you…all overlooking Facebook, Google Apple etcetc
Are you ok Huns?
Pm’d you there hun xoxoxo
Like if you cried
Wasn’t Merkel snuggling up to Facebook in an attempt to control what Germans were saying about her folly In inviting the Middle East , North Africa and Asia to come live in Europe , I wonder did they do what they were told ?
At the same time German exports are on a massive high, unlike us, the French and the rest of EU. Go figure.
It’s possible to be over reliant on exports though. Leaves you very exposed if the world economy takes a dump. It’s a very fine balance.
Facebook is a free service from the user perspective that allows you to do a great deal. If it didn’t exist you’d have to invent it. If you want to use a free service then you have to expect a quid pro quo. What is required is that companies such as Facebook are clear about the quid pro who.
There is a huge capacity to tweak your privacy settings on Facebook if you can be bothered to do so. The problem is that many users are not bothered.
The Germans have never been happy with companies like Facebook and Google who use their users’ data to provide what is essentially a commercial service. Apple do not use their user’s data to provide their services. They don’t need to. Their commercial model is different. Horses for courses.
The competition angle is highly contrived. What the Germans resent is that under EU law they are not in exclusive control of Facebook’s activities on their territory. They bitterly resent the notion that a little country like Ireland has such control because the EU HQ of Facebook is here. Strangely enough they have no problem with other aspects of EU law which have opened up internal EU markets to their industries. Like most large States the Germans are hypocrites.
It is easy to criticise Facebook but they have come a long way as has Google in terms of transparency of data use. Continued oversight is needed. But people have to take the time to protect their privacy on-line. Many do not.
Here’s the thing. Don’t like like how Facebook operates… Dont use it. Simple Don’t use a free service voluntarily and then complain about it
“…und das ist all you’ll ever be..”
Facebook’s problem is has to take a side in this freedom of speech debate, look at Twitter who have done the same thing. Twitters user based has dropped along with its share price since it started attacking freedom of speech of some of its users. Any social network platform that takes the wrong side will find to its cost it was an awful business decision.
Agree John.
Germans have bad experience of being spied on the East German Stassi for instance
http://www.mtv.com/news/2723688/germany-twitter-facebook-google-deal-hate-speech-refugees-migrants-muslims/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-faces-antitrust-investigation-in-germany-1456920796
there is huge pressure put on the likes of FB, Google etc by outside international political bodies like the UN Migration dept, EU commision etc. to censor all anti migrant speech and collect data on every one. From the stazi era i germany the average middle aged german is rightly concerned by the incremental erosion of their privacy and the censorship of things disliked by those at the top.
What is happening there now is a semi grassroots reaction to this led by worried german civil servants and concerned politicians. Merkel is all on board with the soviet era top down east german control.
have your say