Reuters: The French data protection authority gave Facebook three months' deadline on Monday to stop tracking the web activities of its non-users without their consent and ordered the social network to stop the transfer of personal data to the United States.
The French order is the first significant action that requires measures to be taken against the transfer of personal data to the United States.
The transatlantic Safe Harbour agreement that allowed the transfer of data from Europe to America was deemed illegal last year amid concerns about the massive eavesdropping carried out by the US government. At that time, European data protection authorities said that businesses transferring data had three months to develop lawful alternative solutions for data transfer and storage.
This deadline expired last week, which means that regulatory authorities can start taking legal action against companies that continue to use the Safe Harbour agreement for data transfer.
The French regulatory authority reported that Facebook was even tracking non-users via a cookie placed in their browser when they visited a page on Facebook, which does not comply with French privacy protection legislation.
If Facebook does not comply within the three-month deadline, it will be fined.
