Facebook received a court order to stop tracking the online activities of people in Belgium who are not using the social networking site in 48 hours, or it will face consequences. The company, on the other hand, said that it would appeal on based on the user security, as per the report of The Verge.
The said decision stemmed from a complaint submitted by Belgian officials stating that Facebook allegedly sets tracking cookies whenever people visit the social networking site. It included even those who do not have accounts with the services, Financial Spots learned.
The cookies are simple files that can track user activities, like how long they have stayed on the site, what they're clicking and the preferences they selected, according to BBC News.
In addition, Facebook is reportedly tracking the Internet users on external websites with the use of like and share buttons.
The judge reportedly ruled that it was personal data, wherein Facebook can use only when an Internet user gives consent as mandated by Belgian privacy law.
What happens if Facebook ignores the order?
The company will need to pay a fine 250,000 euro or $269,000 per day, Engadget reported.
In Facebook's defense, the company stated that had been using that kind of cookie for more than five years. A spokesperson from the company reportedly stated that it kept the networking site secure for more than 1.5 billion users globally.
In addition, the company said that the collected data was discarded after 10 days.
"We will appeal this decision and are working to minimise any disruption to people's access to Facebook in Belgium," Facebook spokeswoman Sally Aldous reportedly said.
Amid all these, Facebook reported on Wednesday, a net profit increase by 11 percent to $896 million from a year ago. The company has also reported a revenue growth of 41 percent to $4.5 billion from a year earlier.
The profit and revenue surge were fueled by the company's mobile advertising business and growing number of daily users, according to the report of New York Times.
Facebook has reportedly invested greatly in hiring, new technologies, marketing and other initiatives; hence, the increase in expenditures. The company wanted to make it clear that it does not have any intentions of slowing down.
Facebook was founded in Feb. 2004. Mark Zuckerberg, together with his co-founders Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes initially limited the membership to Harvard students.
The social medium later expanded to Boston area colleges, Ivy League and Stanford University.
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