Facebook fights for the right to follow Nonusers (and Users)–around the web
Facebook fights for the right to follow users–and
nonusers–around the web
BY MELISSA LOCKER 03.27.19 10:01 AM
Facebook is hunkering down for a fight over its burning
desire to follow users–and nonusers–around the web.
The social network is heading to court in Belgium on
Wednesday, Bloomberg reports. Its goal is to fight a court order that would
force it to stop using cookies and other tracking technology to follow its
users as they navigate around the internet to serve them ads–at least until
Facebook explains exactly how and why it collects data and what it does with
the information. The original court order required the social media giant to
stop tracking users, delete all data it had gathered illegally on Belgian
citizen–including people who were not Facebook users themselves–or face fines
of up to 250,000 euros ($281,625) a day.
It may be a tough slog as Facebook’s tracking technology
is applied not only to people who willingly signed up for the site, but also to
millions of people who aren’t signed up or have closed their accounts.
Belgium’s court order, meanwhile, may be bolstered by the EU’s General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR), which allows penalties as large as 4% of a
company’s annual revenue.
Facebook argues that its use of cookies and tracking as
users hit the “like” or “share” button and move to third-party websites is
within industry standards and the company gives users the ability to opt out of
data collection on other sites–although Belgium may disagree with that
statement.
We have reached out to Facebook for comment and will
update if we get a response.
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