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Facebook Businesses Privacy Social Networks The Courts

Facebook Succeeds In Blocking German FCO's Privacy-Minded Order Against Combining User Data (techcrunch.com) 28

Posted by BeauHD from the regulatory-innovation dept.
Facebook has succeeded in blocking a pioneering order by Germany's Federal Cartel Office earlier this year that would have banned it from combining data on users across its own suite of social platforms -- Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp -- without their consent. TechCrunch reports: Pioneering because the antitrust regulator had liaised with EU privacy authorities during a long-running investigation of Facebook's data-gathering activities -- leading it to conclude that Facebook's conduct in the German market where it also deemed it to hold a monopoly position amounted to "exploitative abuse." The Bundeskartellamt (FCO) order had been likened to a structural separation of Facebook's businesses at the data level. Facebook appealed, delaying application of the order, and today's ruling by the Dusseldorf court grants a suspension (press release in German) -- essentially kicking the matter into very long legal grass.
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Facebook Succeeds In Blocking German FCO's Privacy-Minded Order Against Combining User Data More

Facebook Succeeds In Blocking German FCO's Privacy-Minded Order Against Combining User Data

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  • Unfortunate (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Empiric ( 675968 ) on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @08:25PM (#59131644)

    As the construction of user "voodoo dolls" gets more and more precise with the aggregation of more data in better models, manipulation will grow more accurate and more profitable, in a self-sustaining cycle.

    Manipulation on what to buy, and who to vote for, as the most overt cases. But it will fill up the whole space of profit potential, including what companies and what people should exclude you up front based on your voodoo doll. And a "protected class" won't help in the least with that kind of discrimination.

    Regrettable that the GPDR is proving so permeable.

    • It's the court interpretation of GDPR at that level. Higher level courts may change the outcome.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The summary exaggerates. This is just a temporary suspension while the order is appealed. Facebook is likely to lose this one in the end.

      Really Facebook should just comply and count themselves lucky. The more they fight this the worse GDPR V2 is going to be for them.

  • Facebook, Please! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by MrKaos ( 858439 )

    kicking the matter into very long legal grass

    I wonder if we see a counter assault on German rights in the form of an extended campaign of PR moves and candidate lobbying to stifle any sympathetic resistance to the advance of their platform?

    It's almost like being asked "Facebook Please" wherever you go online.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      You will see a legal assault against the appeal. The Germans are now well and truly pissed off, so much so, they no longer want to curtail Facebooks activities in Germany, now they want to destroy Facebook in German, you arrogant Americans done fucked up.

  • Yes, there are good reasons to worry about the ability of natural internet monopolies (social networks, shopping and distribution companies) to use that market power to harm the consumer. But the kind of data separation rule under consideration doesn't address the underlying problem while it does risk further annoying users and blocking the development of useful features.

    There are genuine benefits to being able to use data across a range of platforms. For facebook but also for consumers. Hell, a complete data independence doctrine would make it that much HARDER to effectively manage and control privacy settings by keeping those preferences from being shared. It would (absent some exception) limit the ability of facebook to fend off social engineering or account walking attacks by correlating suspicious behavior across the apps. Regarding privacy, it's not the lack of integration of messenger data with facebook data that keeps facebook from invading privacy in ways that people find truly disturbing (outing their affairs etc..) it's fear of PR backlash and regulation.

    What is needed is smart legislation that limits the ability of natural monopolies and other giant businesses to leverage their size in ways that let them obstruct new technologies and rivals while at the same time presenting users with a 'take it or leave it non-choice regarding their personal data'. GDPR is a step in the wrong direction in that it actually blessed the kind of take it or leave it consent which creates the problem while ensuring everyone just spams 'I accept' everywhere they go. No list of rules on consent and when/where/how-long data can be collected and used will help since the user has no other options nor ability to evaluate likely effects.

    On the other hand if facebook was regulated as a kind of platform offering social media connection services that would be fully different. If you want to do something force facebook to offer facebook as a kind of service accessible via many interfaces (some ad supported, some subscription etc..) who pay RAND rates for it. Don't further overwhelm the consumer by making it harder to express their preferences about their online publicity in one place.

    • On my approach facebook would be forced to keep formally seperate books regarding it's ad revenue and it's operations of the social network and let anyone else who thought they could either offer users a better value proposition (we'll show less ads because we more effectively target the ones we do sell) or a better privacy protection (no ads, no use of your data ito target them if you choose to pay a subscription fee that covers that cost.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gumpish ( 682245 )

      2 Libra have been deposited in your wallet.

    • Re:Justified Fear Doesn't Excuse Bad Fixes (Score:4, Informative)

      by pjt33 ( 739471 ) on Wednesday August 28, 2019 @01:52AM (#59132064)

      GDPR is a step in the wrong direction in that it actually blessed the kind of take it or leave it consent which creates the problem while ensuring everyone just spams 'I accept' everywhere they go.

      It didn't. Article 7:

      4. When assessing whether consent is freely given, utmost account shall be taken of whether, inter alia, the performance of a contract, including the provision of a service, is conditional on consent to the processing of personal data that is not necessary for the performance of that contract.

      Recital 43:

      2. Consent is presumed not to be freely given if it does not allow separate consent to be given to different personal data processing operations despite it being appropriate in the individual case, or if the performance of a contract, including the provision of a service, is dependent on the consent despite such consent not being necessary for such performance.

      "Take it or leave it" falls foul of at least one of those presumptions against consent being freely given, and the way many websites responded to GDPR also infringes the requirement that withdrawal of consent be as easy as grant. (Have you ever seen a website pop up a banner asking whether you want to withdraw previously given consent?) What's lacking is strict enforcement.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Greater enforcement is coming. There are currently multiple cases before various courts seeking to clarify these rules where companies interpret them differently to the agencies tasked with enforcing them.

        Once the decisions are made they can then be applied more widely. That's just how the legislative and legal systems work here - the laws set out the basic principals but the courts have to hash out how they will be applied to specific cases, and it takes a while to happen.

    • while ensuring everyone just spams 'I accept' everywhere they go

      Or, plan B - as many people are taking. A site pops up a request for facebook whataboutery and my NoScript and Adblock block it and I don't see it. And if the site doesn't work without that ... well, I don't use it. Tough on the site owner.

      I have several questions from my wife and family every year about why I'm not on Facebook. I tell them that I refuse to give that company so much of my data. They still don't understand, and I still don't ha

  • German judges enjoy receiving suitcases full of cash in dark parking lots just as much as do their American counterparts.

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