Big Data

Austrian campaigner files class action suit against Facebook over privacy policy

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(Image: IDG)

1 August 2014

There is no direct risk for participants because all the legal risks are with Schrems, who is funded by Roland ProzessFinanz, a German legal financing provider, the group said. Roland will be responsible for any legal fees and if the group wins will get 20% of the awarded amount, after costs, it added.

“Of course Facebook could theoretically try to take other actions against users or participants. Facebook could [for example] delete accounts of participants. Such actions are, however, very unlikely, would itself be hardly legal and very likely a huge PR disaster,” the group said.

Facebook declined to comment on the suit.

Europe-v-Facebook has been campaigning against Facebook over privacy and data protection issues for years.

It filed complaints with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) which led to an audit of Facebook’s privacy practices. As a result, the DPC recommended further actions and Facebook made a series of commitments to improve its privacy practices in the EU.

More recently, the group filed a complaint with the DPC over Facebook’s alleged involvement in the Prism program under which the NSA could spy on European Facebook users’ data because personal data is exchanged between the EU and the US The DPC said this exchange is legal. But Europe-v-Facebook asked the Irish High Court to review and reverse that decision. That court referred the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in June.

Loek Essers, IDG News Service

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