Agencies contend Facebook is breaching French privacy laws

According to a report in know-how web site Tech Crunch, Facebook has been given three months to make the modifications deemed needed by the data safety authority CNIL and failing to achieve this will incur heavy fines.

The CNIL noted that Facebook doesn’t specifically ask for users’ consent for the collection of data on their political and religious opinions and sexual orientation, as it obliged to do under French law, and doesn’t inform users about how their data will be collected and used during the sign-up process.

Cnil also suggested Facebook give users the chance to opt out of measures it now uses to combine data it has collected on their habits from different sources. According to Venture Beat, the Safe Harbour pact, which was an agreement that had been relied on by thousands of firms, including Facebook, to avoid clumsy European Union data transfer rules, was ruled illegal past year amid concerns over mass United States government snooping. “We… look forward to engaging with the CNIL to respond to their concerns”, a spokeswoman said.

Hopefully this isn’t new for you, but yes, Facebook does track the data of pretty much anyone that clicks on any link related to the social media outlet.

CNIL is also concerned about the privacy of Facebook registered users.

Now, it’s France’s turn to tell Facebook to knock it off with tracking non-users. Facebook has maintained that it is in full compliance with European privacy rules. Hence, it was ordered by European Union data protection authorities that companies should seek other alternatives to transfer data.

“On the contrary, if Facebook Inc. and Facebook Ireland Limited have not complied with the formal notice within the time limit, the Chair shall appoint a “rapporteur” who might refer the matter to the CNIL’s Select Committee with a view to deciding a sanction”, CNIL said.

But now that Safe Harbour’s been silted up, the chair of France’s Commission Nationale Informatique et Libertés (CNIL) wants Facebook to stop sending data offshore.

However, until the new agreement comes into effect, European data-protection authorities are still able to enforce the Safe Harbor ruling.

Established 15 years ago to ensure businesses treat data moving between countries with the same privacy protections as inside the region, the Safe Harbor deal came under fire following mass surveillance revelations in the Snowden documents. Facebook has repeatedly stated that it uses other legal contracts to transfer data to the US.

Facebook said it would appeal against that ruling, but agreed to the demands in the interim to swerve daily fines of €250,000 from the Belgian privacy authorities.