EU ready to punish ‘misleading’ Facebook
The EU has redoubled its regulatory assault against Silicon Valley’s tech giants after declaring it was growing ‘‘impatient’’ with Facebook over its ‘‘misleading’’ terms of service.
Vera Jourova, the EU Justice and Consumer Affairs Commissioner, yesterday said: ‘‘My patience has reached its limit. It is now time for action and no more promises.’’
Speaking just hours after the European Commission said it was studying whether Amazon’s use of data collected from third-party vendors on its service raised competition concerns, Jourova said she would call on authorities across the 28-country bloc to act quickly to fine Facebook if it fails to comply by the end of the year.
The social media giant has been accused of failing to update ‘‘misleading’’ terms and conditions by December to comply with European rules.
The EU wants it to better protect European consumers’ rights and make it clearer exactly how their data is being used.
They also want users to be better informed about content removal or contract termination. The changes include giving them the ability to withdraw from online purchases and allow them to sue in Europe rather than California.
Facebook made some adjustments to its terms in February but EU officials say the changes didn’t go far enough.
For instance, Facebook now tells consumers that their data and content is used only to improve their overall ‘‘experience’’ and does not mention that the company uses it for commercial purposes.
‘‘While Facebook assured me to finally adapt any remaining misleading terms of services by December, this has been ongoing for too long.
‘‘I want Facebook to be extremely clear to its users about how their service operates and makes money,’’ Jourova said.
‘‘Not many people know that Facebook has made available their data to third parties or that for instance it holds full copyright about any picture or content you put on it.’’
Facebook was hit with a £500,000 (NZ$991,608) fine earlier this year for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the data of 87m users was harvested for political purposes. Since then, the company has done little to escape scrutiny from EU politicians and regulators, with many predicting this was the first of many fines as the Information Commissioner’s Office continues to investigate other aspects of Facebook’s data-sharing such as an advertising service that combined third-party data with the likes of credit-check giant Experian, among others.
Facebook’s slowness to act led British Prime Minister Theresa May to accuse the company of ‘‘profiting from child trafficking’’, warning this week that people smugglers were advertising ‘‘travel agent-style’’ services online to migrants. May highlighted how easy it is for trafficking gangs to post convincing advertisements online without them being removed by Facebook and other social media companies. Jourova applauded holiday rental company Airbnb for committing to changing its terms three months after it was approached by the European Commission. – Telegraph Group
‘‘My patience has reached its limit. It is now time for action and no more promises.’’
Vera Jourova, EU Justice and Consumer Affairs Commissioner