Facebook loses Belgian privacy case, faces fine up to $125 million

A Belgian court threatened Facebook (FB.O) with a fine of up to
100 million euros ($125 million) if it continued to break privacy
laws by tracking people on third party websites.

In a case brought by Belgium’s privacy watchdog, the court also
ruled on Friday that Facebook had to delete all data it had
gathered illegally on Belgian citizens, including people who were
not Facebook users themselves.

Facebook, which will be fined 250,000 euros a day or up to 100
million euros if it does not comply with the court’s judgment, said
in a statement it would appeal the ruling.

“Facebook informs us insufficiently about gathering information
about us, the kind of data it collects, what it does with that data
and how long it stores it,” the court said.

“It also does not gain our consent to collect and store all this
information,” it added in a statement.

The social media group uses different methods to track the
online behavior of people if they are not on the company’s web site
by placing cookies and invisible pixels on third party web sites,
the court said.

A Belgian court threatened Facebook (FB.O) with a fine of up to
100 million euros ($125 million) if it continued to break privacy
laws by tracking people on third party websites.

In a case brought by Belgium’s privacy watchdog, the court also
ruled on Friday that Facebook had to delete all data it had
gathered illegally on Belgian citizens, including people who were
not Facebook users themselves.

Facebook, which will be fined 250,000 euros a day or up to 100
million euros if it does not comply with the court’s judgment, said
in a statement it would appeal the ruling.

“Facebook informs us insufficiently about gathering information
about us, the kind of data it collects, what it does with that data
and how long it stores it,” the court said.

“It also does not gain our consent to collect and store all this
information,” it added in a statement.

The social media group uses different methods to track the
online behavior of people if they are not on the company’s web site
by placing cookies and invisible pixels on third party web sites,
the court said.