Facebook faces yet another privacy-related legal problem 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.