Facebook has caused confusion about its new privacy options. On Tuesday, social network announced that it would also like to implement data protection settings that apply in course of European Data Protection Basic Regulation (DSGVO) worldwide. On Thursday, however, opposite seems to be case at first: around 1.5 billion users and users of network will no longer fall into European area of competence and thus no longer under European business conditions.
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Until now, all members outside United States and Canada were subject to terms of use of international headquarters in Ireland. From May only 370 million users in Europe will be assigned to Ireland and thus fall under stricter EU data protection guidelines. The remaining approximately 1.5 billion members in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America will n fall under less stringent US data protection laws. The reassignment of users has now confirmed Facebook to news agency Reuters.
The reason for this step should be mainly possible penalties for breaches of European data protection rules. If companies violate requirements of DSGVO, y are threatened with penalties of up to 20 million euros or up to four percent of ir worldwide turnover. So on Facebook, it could be several billion euros.
For most users, US privacy policy is suddenly
Facebook is playing down influence of redistribution. We wanted to introduce same settings and data protection options that European users are now getting in or regions. The present announcement does not change it. As experts have pointed out in past, same attitudes do not mean same terms of use – and refore not same legal appeals, for example regarding data transfer and use.
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Michael Veale, an expert at University College London, said in conversation with Reuters and on Twitter that affected users could n submit no complaints and lawsuits to Irish Data protection officer. Instead, your data would be processed according to US laws.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had previously announced that Facebook would basically guarantee privacy of users worldwide – albeit with exceptions. He did not call details at that time. At end of March, Facebook also announced that users will be able to view and delete ir data more easily. In addition, group wants to be more transparent about how it deals with data of users in order to meet requirements of EU Data Protection Ordinance.
Do or companies follow Facebook’s role model?
It is questionable wher or companies will take a similar step before introduction of new DSGVO at end of May. Reuters reports that Microsoft’s LinkedIn subsidiary will in May adapt all non-European users to terms and conditions of American headquarters. Critics fear that such decisions could soften privacy of millions of users outside Europe. In addition, new problems could arise, for example when a user from Europe is incorrectly assigned to anor country – and ir data may n be processed illegally.
The use of Facebook with information of its users has been criticised in particular since data scandal surrounding British company Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica is set to use data from up to 87 million Facebook members to support U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign. Like most or American engineering companies, Facebook has its European headquarters in Ireland, where corporate tax is particularly low.
