Italy fines Facebook over data misuse

Italy’s competition authority has fined facebook totaling 10 million euros ($11.3 million) for selling users data without informing them.

Facebook “misleadingly gets people sign up without informing them in an immediate and adequate way of how the data they will provide will be harvested for commercial purposes”, – Italy’s AGCM statement.

The unfair practice of data handling by the facebook, over the transmission of users data to third-party apps and sites.

The company [Facebook] does not clearly tell people about “the remunerative purpose that underlies the provision of the social network’s service, simply stressing the fact that it’s free”.

The fines were the result of an investigation Italy opened in April this year.

The data at the centre of the controversy was obtained from a personality quiz app downloaded by some 300,000 people. It gathered details about their Facebook friends without their knowledge, permitted by Facebook’s rules at the time.

The company said in a statement that it’s reviewing the Competition Authority’s decision and hopes to work with the agency to resolve its concerns.

The company has faced a barrage of criticism recently for the misuse of users’ data to influence elections amid increasing calls for the company run by Mark Zuckerberg to be regulated.