The Italian competition authority AGCM threatens with a fine of 5 million euros for Facebook. People are still not well informed that the company uses personal data for advertising, the market watchdog said.
In November 2018, AGCM already found that Facebook is thereby misleading people, for example by emphasizing that the use of the social medium is free. The company received two fines for a total of 10 million euros.
Although Facebook changed the text on its homepage, where new users can register, in 2019 from ‘It’s free (and it will stay that way)’ to ‘You can do this very quickly and easily’, users are still not getting well informed, says the AGCM.
“The personal data of users represent an economic value”, is the opinion of the watchdog. “They are used to profile Facebook users for commercial and marketing purposes.”
It is unclear how long Facebook will have the time to meet the requirements of the Italian regulator to prevent the additional fine of 5 million euros.
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