Facebook’s use of registered users’ privacy data is one that might continue to spark legal tussles in a long time to come.
The massive influence Facebook has on the lives and health of its users across the world has attracted a lot of attention on how the tech giant handles privacy rights agreements.
Facebook’s use of registered users’ privacy data is one that might continue to spark legal tussles in a long time to come.
Recently, the Competition Bureau in an investigation of Facebook’s practices from 2012 to 2018 discovered the social media giant deceived Canadians into believing users could control anyone who viewed their personal information on Messenger and Facebook. Unfortunately, it allowed users’ data to be shared with third party developers.
CBC News on Tuesday reported that the Bureau Commissioner, Matthew Boswell in a statement, said that Canadians expect and deserve the truth from businesses in the digital economy, and claims about privacy are no exception.
He noted the Competition Bureau in Canada will not delay in slamming the big stick on any business that makes a misleading claim about how they use personal data, whether or not they are smaller scale businesses or multinational corporations such as Facebook.
Also, Business Times reports that Canada’s competition watchdog announced on Tuesday that Facebook has agreed to pay a C$9 million fine for making misleading claims about its privacy settings.
The newspaper said Facebook had vowed publicly to stop the practice in 2015, but continued to allow third-party access to its users’ messages and posts until 2018.
As part of the settlement, Facebook which has about 24 million users in Canada alone has agreed not to make false representations about the disclosure of personal information, and pay the Competition Bureau’s C$500,000 investigation costs.
In another report, BBC News reports that a Facebook spokesperson says it did not agree with the investigations, but wants to resolve the matter by entering into a consent agreement and not contest the conclusions, nevertheless.
Meanwhile, the Canadian competition watchdog said it discovered that the tech giant’s privacy claims were not consistent with the way it shared personal data of users with some third-party developers.
The BBC confirmed that the social media company has agreed not to make any misleading representations about disclosing personal information as part of the solution to the crisis.
Facebook has suffered criticism in recent years over its handling of fake news during 2016 elections, as well as the improper sharing of user data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
It was found Facebook allowed a British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, to have access to the data of millions of users.
The data was sourced through a quiz hosted on the social media platform, which invited users to discover their personality types.
As was common with apps and games at that time, the quiz was planned to gather both the user data of any person taking part and also the data of their friends.
The data of over 87 million Facebook users was shared worldwide, about 620,000 of whom were Canadian residents.
Agence France-Presse reports that Canada’s competition watchdog announced Tuesday that Facebook has agreed to pay a fine of about $9 million for making false or misleading claims about its privacy settings.
It said as a part of the settlement, Facebook has agreed not to make false or misleading representations about the disclosure of personal information, and pay the Competition Bureau $500,000 to cover investigation costs.
In a related development, CBC, reports that a Facebook spokesperson said although the company disagrees with the finding, it will not contest it.
Facebook will instead, enter into a consent agreement and build on the improvements made in protecting people’s information and how her staff communicate about the privacy controls Canadians can use.
In 2019, the United States Federal Trade Commission sanctioned Facebook with a $5-billion fine. Till date, that levy remains the largest the USFTC has ever slammed a tech company with.
Following widespread complaints, Mark Zuckerberg declared a privacy-focused vision for Facebook in 2019. That included some changes in Facebook and other apps it owns.
