Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is likely to face a suit from an Austrian Privacy Group, underscoring its recent privacy issues in Europe. The data-privacy advocacy group, dubbed Europe vs. Facebook, plans to stage the suit in Ireland, the home country to Facebook’s international offices. The group has been advocating for more privacy and greater data protection for the network’s 1 billion plus users. Through its prolonged efforts it has managed to win some concessions, among them compelling Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) to switch off its facial recognition feature among European users.
Despite the notable milestone made with the concessions, Europe vs. Facebook still argues that the concessions do not go far enough. In an attempt to push further with its agenda, the group has initiated efforts to raise funds for the suit. The funds needed range between €100,000 and €300,000 ($130,000 to $392,000) and are being raised through a crowd sourced platform.
The group believes that the authorities will take a slant toward Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), despite its efforts to push forward with the settlement of their complaints “We now hope for a soon settlement of our complaints. Simultaneously, we have to assume that the authority in many cases won’t decide in the favor of users but in the favor of Facebook. Such a decision can be contested by us at court,” it said in a statement.
Following a report about Facebook from the Irish data protection authority, the group has raised a series of complaints on varied issues. The complaints, which total to 22, demonstrate the group’s disappointment in the Irish data protection authority report on Facebook. In addition, the group also wants legally binding documents between Facebook and the Irish government. It believes that the documents will be instrumental in resolving its concerns.
A Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) spokesperson represented the social network’s take on the announcement. The spokesperson’s statement touched on Facebook Ireland’s fashion of handling European personal data, citing that Facebook has been under thorough review by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner over the past year.
In an interview with Reuters, the deputy data protection commissioner, Gary Davies, turned down an accusation that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s investment in Ireland interfered with the regulation of the company; a point that the Europe vs. Facebook group boldly takes issue with. “The Irish authority has taken many important steps which moved privacy on Facebook forward, but when looked at it in more detail, has not always delivered solid and fact based results”, noted the group.
