Facebook fines Canadian millions for misleading users about privacy

Facebook has been fined by a Canadian regulator for not properly handling the privacy of its Canadian users. Facebook allegedly made false claims about the privacy of its users.

It concerns a fine of 9 million Canadian dollars, which is about 5.9 million euros. That fine has been imposed by the Competition Bureau, the Canadian market regulator. In a response to Reuters, Facebook said it did not agree with the allegations, but agreed to pay the fine and would not challenge it further.

The Competition Bureau accuses Facebook of misleading its Canadian users about privacy on its platform from 2012 to 2018. There would have been an expectation that users have control over whether or not their data is shared, but according to Canadian authorities, Facebook has improperly shared data with third parties. In the investigation, Facebook is said to have indicated that the practices would have stopped as early as 2015, but the Canadians found evidence that this continued until 2018.

Facebook has been fined several times for privacy violations. One of the largest fines was that of the American market watchdog FTC. He recently fined Facebook $5 billion for privacy violations.