BUSINESS OF DATA COLLECTION

GERMAN DIRECTIVE TO FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK has been ordered to curb its data collection practices in Germany after a ruling that the world’s largest social network had abused its market dominance to gather information about users without their knowledge or consent. Facebook said it would appeal yesterday’s landmark ruling by the Federal Cartel Office, the culmination of a threeyear probe, saying the antitrust watchdog had underestimated the competition it faced and undermined Europe-wide privacy rules that took effect last year. “In future, Facebook will no longer be allowed to force its users to agree to the practically unrestricted collection and assigning of non-Facebook data to their Facebook accounts,” cartel office chief Andreas Mundt said. The findings follow fierce global scrutiny of Facebook over a series of privacy lapses, including the leak of data on tens of millions of Facebook users, as well as the extensive use of targeted ads by foreign powers seeking to influence elections in the US. Germans still have concerns over personal surveillance that date back to Germany’s history of Nazi and Communist rule last century. | Reuters