Facebook Inc privacy campaign group europe-v-facebook plans to sue the
social network in Ireland, where the company has its international
headquarters, it said on Tuesday.
The Austrian student group has been
campaigning for better data protection by Facebook for over a year and
has won some concessions, notably pushing the world's biggest social
network to switch off its facial recognition feature in Europe.
But
the group said on Tuesday the changes did not go far enough and it was
disappointed with the response of the Irish Data Protection
Commissioner, which had carried out an investigation after
europe-v-facebook filed numerous complaints.
"The Irish authority
is miles away from other European data protection authorities in its
understanding of the law, and failed to investigate many things.
Facebook also gave the authority the runaround," it said in a statement.
"We
are hoping for a legally compliant solution from the Irish data
protection authority. Unfortunately, that is highly doubtful at the
moment. Therefore we are also preparing ourselves for a lawsuit in
Ireland."
Facebook is also facing a class-action lawsuit in the
United States, where it is charged with violating privacy rights by
publicising users' "likes" without giving them a way to opt out.
A
U.S. judge late on Monday gave his preliminary approval to a second
attempt to settle the case by paying users up to $10 each out of a
settlement fund of $20 million.
© Thomson Reuters 2012