Facebook’s blocking access to its pages for non-users in Belgium

Previously, unregistered users could access and view publicly available pages on Facebook of celebrities, sports teams, businesses, and traveling attractions as mere wanderers on the Internet.

Facebook has claimed the cookie provides better security for the members of the website by cutting back the threat of accounts being hijacked, avoiding the development of fake accounts, shielding users’ content against larceny and discouraging denial-of-service attacks.

Facebook has been accused of blackmail by a prominent privacy advocate after the social network sent a letter to the Belgian Privacy Commission (BPC) about a recent court order.

The ruling stemmed from the earlier issue of non-Facebook users being tracked by the sites cookies.

You could find these pages using only a search engine as it was public content, a Facebook representative stated. Last month, the social network giant was ordered to stop tracking such users or they could be fined daily. “It’s as simple as that”, he told Belga news agency.

A company spokesperson said that the social network had hoped to address Belgium authorities’ concerns in a way that allowed Facebook to continue using security cookie that was in place to protect Belgians from over 33,000 takeover attempts in the past month.

Cookies are text files that record the web activity of users and the one in question, which Facebook has named datr, can live in a web user’s browser for two years. Facebook in its defense argued that the step was to safeguard users from notorious hackers.

The ruling will basically see non-users being unable to view Facebook pages without logging in or creating an account with the social media network. This includes public profiles and business accounts as well as any other Facebook related pages. “Period. It seems like they are playing a game in which they are trying to corner us”.

Belgium’s federal deputy minister for privacy affairs, liberal Bart Tommelein, also criticised the move.

Along with blocking access to pages for non-users, datr cookies will not be set for non- where potential, present cookies for such people and users is likely to be deleted. “Everyone should abide by the privacy rules”.

It did not say when the measure would be implemented. In October, an EU ruling abandoned an agreement between the USA and European countries about the transfer of personal information to US data centers.

Facebook and the European Union don’t see eye-to-eye on privacy, and this isn’t the only case. The ruling came from the Brussels court, suggesting it had jurisdiction over the company, said Belgium’s privacy regulator.