Facebook faces yet another privacy-related legal problem in Europe

Perhaps second only to Google in terms of privacy-related legal issues is Facebook, especially in Europe. Hardly a week goes by that Facebook isn’t having to deal with one problem or another in Europe over its privacy policies and this week is no exception. A recently published report which analyzed the company’s updated data policy  and terms of service found that the update may have been illegal and that Facebook is breaking the law in Europe. 

The world’s largest social network is under scrutiny in Europe, following the publication of a report asserting that its updated terms of service and data policy are illegal. At the request of the Belgian government’s Privacy Commission, two groups spent the last several weeks analyzing Facebook’s updated terms of service and data policy. On Monday, they declared that the company is acting unlawfully in Europe. “To be clear: the changes introduced in 2015 weren’t all that drastic. Most of Facebook’s ‘new’ policies and terms are simply old practices made more explicit. Our analysis indicates, however, that Facebook is acting in violation of European law,” University of Leuven’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Law & Information and Communication Technology and the Free University of Brussels’ Department of Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunication said Monday. Both are part of Belgian government’s iMinds digital research center.