The social network will change its conditions: its users outside Europe and North America will be dependent on the global headquarters of the firm in Silicon Valley.
Facebook, contrary to what his boss, Mark Zuckerberg, suggested, does not intend to apply the new European law on personal data in a uniform way around the world. On the contrary: the social network is preparing - according to information from Reuters on Thursday, April 19 confirmed by the company - to deprive more than a billion and a half of its users of the new rights offered by the General Regulation on Data Protection (RGPD) adopted by the European Union (EU).
Currently, Facebook users residing in the United States or Canada enter into a form of contract with the company's California headquarters. The social network is thus placed under the aegis of American law with regard to personal data.
All other users around the world are dealing with Facebook Ireland, where European law - already very protective even before the RGPD - prevails in theory.
Change of conditions of use
In a month's time, Facebook will change its terms of use so that users outside the EU and North America are also dependent on Facebook's global headquarters in Silicon Valley.
Concretely, after having collected and exploited the data of all its non-American and non-European users through its European headquarters in Dublin, the social network is preparing to do so from California. This operation, says Reuters, does not change anything for the 239 million users in North America, nor for the 370 million registered in Europe, who will remain protected by EU law, muscular from May 25 by the RGPD.
For the billion and a half users in South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, however, it is now the US law on personal data, almost nonexistent, that will apply within a month. Users in these areas of the world will lose the opportunity, theoretical but real, to make a complaint to the Irish Data Protection Authority if they believe that Facebook is abusing their data.
These precautions have been taken by the social network to prevent users from using the very restrictive European law because it provides, among other things, massive fines in case of fraud.
How will Facebook apply the RGPD?
The question of how Facebook will apply European law has come back to the fore since the Cambridge Analytical scandal. In early April, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's boss, told reporters: "All settings and [privacy] settings will be the same worldwide, not just in Europe. " A promise repeated a few days later before the US Senate.
Facebook has justified to Reuters its decision by the requirements of the formulation of the conditions of use that requires the RGPD and affirmed to apply "the same protections everywhere", that you are attached to Facebook Ireland or its world headquarters.
It is necessary to read between the lines: the settings, the parameters and the "protections" will perhaps be harmonized at the world level. But this is not the most crucial part of the RGPD, one that will allow users to assert their rights, to the European authorities to control Facebook and to impose fines.
Outside Europe, the social network intends to protect itself as much as possible from the most repressive aspects of the new European law. The company has made a fortune with targeted advertising: it also knows how to target the jurisdictions that are favorable to it.
