German Authorities Put Restriction on Data Collection by Facebook

Tajammul Pangarkar
Tajammul Pangarkar

Updated · Feb 8, 2019

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Ever since GDPR, the privacy and data collection policies of tech giants like Google and Facebook have been at stake. Now, according to the latest reports, German authorities have restricted Facebook when it comes to data collection from users. The competition authority is of the opinion that Facebook has been employing practically unrestricted access and that it must be stopped. Needless to say, the decision would be one of the biggest blows Facebook has received in the recent past.

It should be noted that the targeting advertising plans of the social networking company would be at stake if Facebook is prevented from wide-range data collection. The authority believes that the unlimited freedom the social network has had on data collection allowed it to create a unique database of individual users. “With regard to Facebook’s future data processing policy, we are carrying out what can be seen as an internal divestiture of Facebook’s data. In future, Facebook will no longer be allowed to force its users to agree to the practically unrestricted collection and assigning of non-Facebook data to their Facebook user accounts,” reads the official statement from Andreas Mundt, who is the president of Bundeskartellamt.

The authority also finds the data collection policies as a major factor why Facebook has dominated the social media industry. Replying to the statement, Facebook officials said that the arguments from the authority cannot proceed. The social networking giant added that the authority has underestimated the amount of competition it had to face in Germany. According to the said ruling, Facebook will still be able to collect information through services like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. However, it will not be able to connect the information to individual profiles and use the same for targeted advertising practices. The cartel also added that Facebook has been using Social Media Pixels to gather information from third-party websites.

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Tajammul Pangarkar

Tajammul Pangarkar

Tajammul Pangarkar is a CMO at Prudour Pvt Ltd. Tajammul longstanding experience in the fields of mobile technology and industry research is often reflected in his insightful body of work. His interest lies in understanding tech trends, dissecting mobile applications, and raising general awareness of technical know-how. He frequently contributes to numerous industry-specific magazines and forums. When he’s not ruminating about various happenings in the tech world, he can usually be found indulging in his next favorite interest - table tennis.