Italy's Competition Authority Begins Non-Compliance Proceedings Against Facebook

Italy's Competition Authority Begins Non-Compliance Proceedings Against Facebook

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has launched a procedure against Facebook for not complying with its previously issued requirements, according to a statement published on Friday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2020) The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has launched a procedure against Facebook for not complying with its previously issued requirements, according to a statement published on Friday.

In 2018, the authority fined Facebook five million Euros ($5.5 million) for not properly informing users about the company's data collection practices. The ICA also required the company to end collecting user data for commercial purposes and publish "an amending statement" on its website.

"On 21st January 2020, ICA started non-compliance proceedings against FB, for failure to comply with ICA's decision of 29th November 2018 ... Although FB removed the 'it's free and always will be!' tag line from the home page, consumers willing to register on the social network are still not adequately and immediately informed about the collection and use of their personal data for commercial purposes. It also appears that FB did not publish the amending statement," the regulator said.

Last year, the Italian Data Protection Authority fined the social network 1 million euro for privacy breaches in the Cambridge Analytica case in which the political consulting firm gained access to the data of 87 million users through a psychological testing app and provided it to Donald Trump's US presidential campaign in 2016.