Facebook use of personal data has been ruled illegal in Germany

A German court has today (Monday 12th Feb) accused Facebook of dissent, so to say, after ruling Facebook’s use of personal data as illegal because the U.S. social media platform did not adequately secure the informed consent of its users.For over a while now, Germany has been quite critical over how Facebook handles sensitive personal data that enables it to micro-target online advertising.

Reuter quoted The Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzvb) as saying “Facebook hides default settings that are not privacy-friendly in its privacy center and does not provide sufficient information about it when users register,” said Heiko Duenkel, litigation policy officer at the vzvb.

“This does not meet the requirement for informed consent.” The vzvb posted a copy of the ruling on its website. A court spokesperson confirmed that a judgment had been handed down but declined further comment.

Facebook has said it would appeal and that it had already made significant changes to its terms of service and data protection guidelines since the case was first brought in 2015.