The Belgian justice ordered today Facebook to stop, within 48 hours, to “monitor” Internet users without their consent, threatening that otherwise it will impose a fine of 250,000 euros per day on the company.
This decision, which was taken by the Dutch-speaking court of Brussels, concerns users who are not members of the American social networking site and who, unlike those who have an account on Facebook, have not given their consent to the company to collect their data.
The Belgian Committee for the Protection of Private Life (CPVP) had appealed to the courts.
The judge “ordered the social networking site Facebοοk to stop monitoring and recording internet usage by individuals connected to it from Belgium, within 48 hours after this decision is announced” to the interested parties, the court said in its announcement. “If Facebοοk ignores this order, it must pay 250,000 euros every 24 hours in favor of CPVP”, the announcement added.
The judge's decision concerns the recording by Facebook of the so‑called “cookies”, the small files that websites use to “recognize” their users, storing their data. Facebook maintains cookies that record a user when they visit a page — for example, the “wall” of a friend — as well as their other “activities”, if they have visited an online store, the page of a political party or any other, the court explained.
“Thus, they keep cookies for the possible interests and preferences of internet users. These cookies are retained for up to two years and Facebook can consult them each time a user visits a Facebook page or a site from which they can like or recommend (the site's content) to other Facebook users”, the decision continues.
The judge ruled that this is personal data that Facebook can only use if the user gives their consent, as required by Belgian privacy law.
“If the user maintains an account on Facebook, we can accept that they have given their consent, but if they do not have an account on Facebook, then Facebook must in the future explicitly request their permission and provide the necessary explanations”, concluded the judge.
Source: The Mouse
