The Appellate Court in Berlin has ruled that Facebook's privacy settings and part of its terms and conditions violate consumer and data protection laws. The terms and conditions include a clause on use of users' profile pictures for commercial purposes and a default function in the Facebook mobile app that states the location of people in the chat function. The association for the protection of consumers (Vzbv) filed the lawsuit against Facebook.
In the privacy settings, a checkmark was pre-set to enable search engines to receive a link to the user's chronicle. This makes it easy and quick for everyone to find a Facebook profile. The Court ruled in this case that consent to use of the data is required.
The Court also ruled against a number of terms and conditions. In one clause, users agree that Facebook may use their names and profile pictures "for commercial, sponsored or related content" and forward the data to the US. In another clause, users agree in advance to future changes to Facebook's data regulations. The clause that requires users to provide their real name, among other things, had already been prohibited in December.
With this ruling, the Court made it clear that the consumer association Vzbv is entitled to pursue legal violations of data protection by companies even after the General Data Protection regulation (GDPR) entered into force. The advertising motto "Facebook is and remains free of charge", however, is not misleading, the Court ruled. In this case, the judges confirmed a ruling by the Berlin District Court in January 2018. A Facebook spokeswoman pointed out that the company had already "comprehensively revised" its terms and conditions and data policy in 2018.
