• Data Protection

  Court criticizes German watchdog for imposing data collection restrictions on FB

  Posted by Unknown Member on 24 March 2021 at 6:30 pm

  If you ever wondered if the state is against you, just look to the Germans. Court criticizes German watchdog for imposing data collection restrictions on Facebook and sides with them against your privacy.

  A German court has effectively sided with Facebook, overruling a decision by the country’s antitrust watchdog that claimed the social media giant had abused its position to illegally gather user data.

  The Higher Regional Court in Dusseldorf referred a two-year case over Facebook’s data collection practices to the European Court of Justice on Wednesday, effectively reversing a decision by the Federal Cartel Office, Germany’s antitrust watchdog.

  The decision is the latest development in a legal case that has been ongoing since February 2019, when the watchdog sought to limit Facebook’s ability to collect data from users without their consent.

  In their ruling, the presiding judges declared that “the question of whether Facebook is abusing its dominant position … cannot be decided without referring it to the European Court.”

  Facebook has repeatedly appealed the ruling, which had threatened to have global implications and spark limitations from other governments that have floated the implementation of tougher regulation on social media sites.

  The German watchdog had restricted Facebook’s data-gathering approaches by using an antitrust measure that claimed the company had collected the information in an “exploitative” way by using its position as a dominant social media site and forcing users to decide between using it and giving up personal data or not having access to a major digital platform.

  The ruling had prohibited the social media company from collecting data and merging information gathered from users’ accounts on the site and other Facebook-owned services, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

  The left wing surveillance and sanitation continues of the lovers of democracy and freedom.

  Unknown Member replied 4 years, 1 month ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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