Facebook loses Belgian privacy case, faces fine of up to $125 million
A Belgian court threatened Facebook on Friday with a fine of up to 100 million euros ($125 million) if it continued to break privacy laws by tracking people on third-party websites.
In a case brought by Belgium's privacy watchdog, the court also ruled that Facebook had to delete all data it had gathered illegally on Belgian citizens, including people who were not Facebook users themselves.
Facebook, which will be fined 250,000 euros a day or up to 100 million euros if it does not comply with the court's judgment, said in a statement it would appeal the ruling.
Also at The Guardian.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 18 2018, @09:14PM (3 children)
Instant messages sent by Zuckerberg during Facebook's early days, reported by Business Insider (May 13, 2010)
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Apparition on Sunday February 18 2018, @10:07PM (2 children)
The thing is, people know this, and they just don't care. I've heard "So what? I have nothing to hide," so many times over the past ten years. The war for privacy is truly lost. Even if you're careful and value privacy, you still don't have it because Joe Schmoe and Aunt Susie will happily upload photographs of you on Facebook and see no problem with it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by corey on Monday February 19 2018, @01:30AM
Yeah I have virtually given up trying to convince people to protect privacy due to this argument. They don't see the downstream effects or future possibilities.
Like I did with global warming 5 years ago.
People need to see tangible effects of not acting, till then they have some cognitive dissonance or laziness that persuades them. Or maybe its selfishness or something.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2018, @11:46AM
It's not lost, the ones who care about privacy have just as much as ever, it requires the same discipline as ever (just over a different medium). The ones who lost the game are the same ones that would've had customer cards at myriad retail stores in the past. Let them stew in their own juice until the powers that be decide to abuse the collected data for a cleansing purge.