Facebook Faces Lawsuit in Australia Over Collecting User Data Without Permission

The lawsuit echoes a landmark US Federal Trade Commission action accusing Facebook of inappropriately maintaining market dominance.

Facebook Faces Lawsuit in Australia Over Collecting User Data Without Permission

Australian privacy regulator has separate lawsuit against Facebook accusing it of breaching user privacy

Highlights
  • The ACCC said it was seeking an unspecified fine from Facebook
  • Facebook shut down the VPN product in 2019
  • The US lawsuit may force Facebook to sell assets
Advertisement

An Australian regulator sued Facebook on Wednesday accusing it of collecting user data without permission, building on government efforts around the world to rein in the social network.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it was seeking an unspecified fine from Facebook for promoting a virtual private network as a way for people to protect their data, while secretly using the information to pick targets for commercial acquisitions.

The lawsuit echoes a landmark US Federal Trade Commission action accusing the social media giant of inappropriately maintaining market dominance by using customer data to decide on takeover targets including messaging app Whatsapp and image-sharing app Instagram.

"There is a link to what the FTC is saying, but they're looking at a competition issue," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said at a televised news conference. "We're looking at the consumer."

A Facebook spokeswoman said the company was "always clear about the information we collect and how it is used".

"We will review the recent filing by the ACCC and will continue to defend our position in response to this recent filing," she added.

Facebook shut down the VPN product in 2019.

Earlier this month, Australia went ahead with plans to make Facebook and Internet giant Google pay domestic media outlets for content that appeared on their websites, at Sims's recommendation.

The Australian privacy regulator has a separate lawsuit against Facebook accusing it of breaching user privacy with a personality test run by political marketing consultant Cambridge Analytica. Facebook is defending that action. The ACCC is also suing Google alleging it misled users about data collection.

Unlike the US lawsuit, which may force Facebook to sell assets, the Australian lawsuit may force the company to change the way it discloses its activities to users, said Rob Nicholls, a University of New South Wales associate professor who specialises in competition law.

"Rather than take the antitrust approach of 'the only way to solve this is to break it up', it's more 'we're going to take the actions that we can under the existing law to change the conduct so that it is acceptable to Australian consumers and Australian businesses," Nicholls said.

© Thomson Reuters 2020
 


Is MacBook Air M1 the portable beast of a laptop that you always wanted? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Facebook
Mi QLED TV 4K With UHD, Dolby Vision Display Launched in India by Xiaomi: Price, Specifications
Cyberpunk 2077 PS4 and Xbox One Version Was ‘Ignored’, CD Projekt Red Admits
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »