Breach of privacy on Facebook

22.4.2015

Question for written answer E-006425-15
to the Commission
Rule 130
Pablo Iglesias (GUE/NGL) , Tania González Peñas (GUE/NGL) , Miguel Urbán Crespo (GUE/NGL) , Lola Sánchez Caldentey (GUE/NGL) , João Ferreira (GUE/NGL) , Ana Gomes (S&D) , Kateřina Konečná (GUE/NGL) , Eric Andrieu (S&D) , Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL) , Igor Šoltes (Verts/ALE) , Cornelia Ernst (GUE/NGL) , Anja Hazekamp (GUE/NGL) , Matt Carthy (GUE/NGL) , Stelios Kouloglou (GUE/NGL) , Pavel Poc (S&D) , Milan Zver (PPE) , Georgi Pirinski (S&D) , Marisa Matias (GUE/NGL) , Luke Ming Flanagan (GUE/NGL) , Fabio Massimo Castaldo (EFDD) , Fabio De Masi (GUE/NGL) , Neoklis Sylikiotis (GUE/NGL) , Patrick Le Hyaric (GUE/NGL) , Younous Omarjee (GUE/NGL) , Martina Michels (GUE/NGL) , Virginie Rozière (S&D) , Josu Juaristi Abaunz (GUE/NGL) , Emmanouil Glezos (GUE/NGL) , Ivo Vajgl (ALDE) , Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL) , Lidia Senra Rodríguez (GUE/NGL) , Javier Couso Permuy (GUE/NGL)

According to a recent report of a European regulatory body drawn up by the University of Leuven and published last February, the US company Facebook is acting in violation of European law on data protection. The report says that its policies around third-party advertising on the social network and the information it obtains from profiling users do not meet the legally valid requirements and fail to offer adequate control mechanisms to prevent the content generated by Facebook members from being used for commercial purposes.

Furthermore, the report considers that Facebook extracts information ‘improperly’ from users' mobile devices by way of their location, for example, without requesting their legitimate consent.

In these circumstances, does the Commission consider that Facebook may be acting in violation of Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data?