Facebook has been ordered by the Italian data protection authority to provide an Italian user with all of their data, including the photos, personal information and posts from a separate fake account which had been set up in their name by someone else. The social media giant has refused to answer whether it will comply with the order or not, says Ars Technica.
Facebook ordered to block fake account
The Facebook user in question filed a complaint about the abuse of their Facebook account, and after getting an “unsatisfactory” response from the U.S. social media company, the user took the case to the Italian data protection authority.
According to the person, another user became a friend with them on Facebook and went on making demands for money, and when those demands were refused, a new plausible-looking fake account was created by the other user. The complainant alleges that the other user made the fake account by stealing information and pictures from their real account.
Further, on the second account, other manipulated pictures and videos which the complainant said damaged their reputation were posted. The original Facebook user asked the Italian protection authority to order the U.S. firm to cancel and block the fake account. The complainant also asked for the data of both the original and the fake account to be sent to them in a readily-accessible form.
Based on two recent cases
The national data protection authority ordered the personal data of both accounts to be sent to the complainant. The agency ordered the social networking giant to neither process the data of the fake account nor destroy it. They want the data preserved for possible use in a criminal investigation.
The Italian data protection authority has also ordered the social networking site to hand over the details of how the personal data was used, including who might have obtained knowledge from the data and to whom it was sent.
The Italian data protection authority’s ruling is essential to assist in establishing the rights of EU citizens in respect to personal data in fake accounts. Also the ruling is built on two recent judgments from the European Union Court of Justice: the Google Spain case and one known as “Weltimmo.”
The Italian data protection authority found that Italy’s privacy laws were broken, even if the processing of the personal data of the two accounts was carried out by Facebook Ireland.
