Facebook with limits | Germany has imposed …

The complications for Facebook in Europe continue to double. Last December, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram experienced connection difficulties in Europe. Germany has imposed on the social media giant limits on the processing and collection of data from its users, who must now agree that the social network gets its information on external sites or combines. with that of other clean apps, such as Whats-App and Instagram.

The German decision is the latest in a series of measures taken by several governments after the scandal unleashed in 2018 when it was revealed that the Cambridge Analytica consulting firm had used data of nearly 90 million dollars. Facebook users to develop software and influence the presidential elections. United States of 2016.

Facebook has expressed disagreement with the measure issued by an antitrust agency and has announced its intention "to appeal so that German citizens continue to fully benefit from all our services," the US company said in a statement.

The German Federal Competition Office (Bundeskartellamt) has argued that the American company "abuses the dominant position" of the market. In a statement, the agency recalled that, until now, social network users could only use the platform "only on condition" that Facebook could collect personal data from their online activity outside their own site and badociate them with the accounts of those users.

This means that all personal data collected on Facebook, in other services such as WhatsApp and Instagram or on third-party websites, could be combined and attributed to the account of each Facebook user.

"In the future, Facebook will no longer be allowed to compel its users to accept the virtually unlimited collection and allocation of data other than Facebook on their Facebook user accounts," said Andreas Mundt. president of the agency.

This practice of combining all the data of an account with virtually no restrictions "will now be subject to the voluntary consent of users," he said, ensuring that "if users do not give their consent, Facebook can not exclude them from their services and must refrain from collecting and merging data from different sources. "

In addition to its services and platforms, Facebook extracts personal data from its users from third-party websites with interfaces such as "Like" or "Share" buttons, or those that allow you to log in. from a Facebook account (the clbadic system). "Enter with Facebook").

"The Bundeskartellamt underestimates the fierce competition we face in Germany, misunderstands our compliance with the RGPD (General Data Protection Regulation) and threatens the mechanism provided for by the European legislation to ensure the consistency of the standards for the protection of data. data in the EU ", considered as Facebook.

The German decision was based on the results of a three-year survey according to which "the combination of data sources has largely contributed to the fact that Facebook has been able to create a unique database for each user and power in the market," he said. Mundt.