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Spanish watchdog fines Facebook over privacy

by on15 September 2017


That will cost you 1.2 million

Spain's Data Protection Authority has issued a 1.2 million euro fine against Facebook after it found three cases when the company collected data without informing users, as required by European Union privacy laws.

The Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD) found lots of holes in Facebook's method of gathering data on Spanish users. For example, Facebook collects data on ideology, sex, and religious beliefs, as well as personal tastes and web surfing habits without informing the users about how that data will be used.

Facebook wasn't obtaining specific and informed consent from the users because the data it was offering them about the collection was not sufficiently clear. The company has been tracking both users and non-users of the service through the Like button across the web without informing them about this sort of tracking, nor about what it plans to do with the data.

Facebook claims the collection is done for advertising purposes before, but some purposes remain secret, according to the . The AEPD said this sort of collection doesn't comply with the EU's data

The AEPD also noticed that Facebook has not been completely purging the data about users who had already deleted their accounts and that Facebook was making use of accounts' data that had been deleted for more than 17 months. Considering the data that has remained behind is no longer useful for the purpose for which it was collected, the agency considered this another serious infringement of EU privacy laws.

 

Last modified on 15 September 2017
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