According to GDPR, Facebook, Google, and other tech giants have already violated its terms. They were accused of engaging in “forced consent”. Keep reading for more juicy news!

Are Facebook and Google breaking the law?

This is how things went south. To recap, Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) just came into effect yesterday, and other US tech giants are already being accused of breaking the law. Last Friday, non-profit noyb.eu filed complaints against Google, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in four different countries (to be clear, Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp). The reason is that those companies appear to force consumers to agree to their terms of service.

Since the effective date of the regulation, many electronic services have been displaying pop-up messages to notify users about new data policies and asking for their permission. For instance, Facebook has been guiding consumers through a series of policy updates about the type of data it collects in user profiles, how it can use data collected from outside websites. While doing that, the company also lets users decline to enroll in certain features like face recognition.

Thus, it forces them to accept the overall terms of service in order to proceed to the social network. Then, Google offers a similarly compulsory notice on their Android phones. As a result, those that don’t accept the terms of service are not able to use the devices. However, in theory, GDPR does allow companies to collect and use data if it is essential to the business operation. And that will likely be the counter-argument that Facebook and Google will make.

Facebook and Google’s action towards the GDPR complaint

Facebook declined further comment on the specifics of the complaint. Google was not immediately available for comment. It seems like both companies will remain silent on the matter. What do you guys think about this controversial? Is it worth worrying or not? Leave your opinion below!