The Australian litigation might ask Facebook to change its nature of disclosing activities to users, but the US lawsuit would force the company to sell all its assets
After the US and Europe, the Australian regulatory body Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has now charged the social networking giant Facebook for gathering customer’s data without any consent. For the past couple, the American tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Twitter has been scanned for several controversies from unfair gender/racial diversity to dominance of power.
We have instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against Facebook and two of its subsidiaries for false, misleading or deceptive conduct when promoting Facebook’s Onavo Protect mobile app to Australian consumers. https://t.co/oGUqdQMYCd pic.twitter.com/MlExLRLEqI
— ACCC (@acccgovau) December 15, 2020
The regulator body stated that Facebook promoted a VPN for people to protect their data, but they are secretly using their information to identify targets for commercial acquisitions. Hence, the body is going to charge a heavy fine on the social networking. The exact amount is yet to be disclosed by the authorities.
In fact, a US Federal Trade Commission also accused Facebook of unlawfully dominating the market by picking-up targets by using customer data on WhatsApp and even on Instagram. Back in 2019, Facebook was immediately ordered by the commission to shul down the VPN.
According to an exclusive report of Reuters, the Australian 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.
CCC Chairman Rod Sims said at a televised news conference, “There is a link to what the FTC is saying, but they’re looking at a competition issue. We’re looking at the consumer.”
After the allegation, when Facebook was reached for the comment, a spokeswoman said to Reuters, “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.”
