An Austrian student group has announced plans to sue Facebook for failing to do enough to protect the privacy of its users.
The group, called Europe-v-Facebook, has been lobbying Facebook for better privacy functionality for the past year.
It has now said that following the company's failure to respond appropriately, it would launch a legal action in Ireland, where the company has its European headquarters.
The group has already won some concessions from Facebook, notably having it switch off its new 'facial recognition' feature that now does not work in Europe. However, this, they feel, does not go far enough and they are now planning legal action.
They had hoped that the Irish Data Protection Commissioner would assist them in their plight, after filing 22 complaints, but the group was left disappointed by an audit carried out that concluded that most of the complaints were unfounded.
"The Irish obviously have no great political interest in going up against these companies because they're so dependent on the jobs they create," said Max Schrems, the founder of Europe-v-Facebook.
However, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, Gary Davies, denied any undue influence on his decision.
"We have handled this in a highly professional and focused way and we have brought about huge changes in the way Facebook handles personal data," he said.
The move is the latest in a series of challenges to major tech corporations by user groups seeking to force greater protection of privacy online. The European Union has ordered Google to amend its privacy policy as users cannot opt out of a feature that collects and pools data from several applications including Google search and YouTube.
The group believes bringing the case could cost it up to $130,000 and it hopes to raise the funds by appealing for small donations from individual users.
Source:
European students set to sue Facebook over its privacy policies (Daily Mail)
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