Google and Facebook Hit with $8.8 Billion in Lawsuits in Accordance to New EU Privacy Laws - International Prose

Google and Facebook Hit with $8.8 Billion in Lawsuits in Accordance to New EU Privacy Laws
by Jake Johnson and Jessica Corbett via glenn - CommonDreams Friday, May 25 2018, 9:23pm
international / prose / post

Titled the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the new rules require companies to explicitly and clearly request consent from users before mining their data, and Schrems argues in his complaints—which seek fines totaling $8.8 billion—that Google, Facebook, and the Facebook-owned Instagram and WhatsApp are still utilizing "forced consent" strategies to extract users' data when "the law requires that users be given a free choice unless a consent is strictly necessary for provision of the service," TechCrunch explains.

"It's simple: Anything strictly necessary for a service does not need consent boxes anymore. For everything else users must have a real choice to say 'yes' or 'no,'" Schrems wrote in a statement. "Facebook has even blocked accounts of users who have not given consent. In the end users only had the choice to delete the account or hit the 'agree'-button—that's not a free choice."

While Facebook—which is currently embroiled in international controversy following the Cambridge Analytica scandal—insists that its new policies are in compliance with Europe's new regulatory framework, Schrems argues that Facebook and Google aren't even attempting to follow the new law.

"They totally know that it's going to be a violation, they don't even try to hide it," Schrems told the Financial Times.

Creative Commons attribution applies.