Belgium: Facebook faces potential €100m fine

Social media website Facebook faces fines of up to €100 million (US$124.1 million) if the company fails to comply with a Belgium court order to stop tracking its users as they browse the internet and to delete the personal data that the court found it had obtained illegally.

The social network lost a case on Friday, February 16, when the court backed the Belgian privacy watchdog’s finding that it does not sufficiently inform users about the information it collects when they are not on Facebook’s site.

The case centered on Facebook’s use of cookies, “Like” buttons and other tools that the company uses to track online activity. It collects data on its users to enable marketers to buy advertisements targeted at groups based on their interests.

“Even if you have never entered the Facebook domain, Facebook is still able to follow your browsing behaviour without you knowing it, let alone, without you wanting it, thanks to these invisible pixels that Facebook has placed on more than 10,000 other sites,” the Belgian Privacy Commission said in a statement on Friday.

Full Content: Financial Times

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