German antitrust watchdog wants Facebook to obtain explicit user consent before merging data collected from WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Analytics, and social buttons with Facebook profiles.
In a groundbreaking decision published today, the German anti-trust office (Bundeskartellamt) has ruled that Facebook must obtain consent before collecting data on users outside of the main Facebook social networking service.
German regulators ruled that Facebook’s use of additional services such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Analytics, and social buttons to collect data on users while away from the main site is illegal and should be prohibited for the sake of fair competition among tech companies.
Bundeskartellamt officials said Facebook could continue to collect data via each service, but this user data must be kept separate and cannot be merged with existing Facebook profiles unless the company obtains explicit user consent.
The anti-trust watchdog also forbade Facebook from denying users access to its services unless they consent to having their activity tracked outside of the main site.
„In future, Facebook will no longer be allowed to force its users to agree to the practically unrestricted collection and assigning of non-Facebook data to their Facebook user accounts,“ said Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt, in a press release today [ EN / DE].
