Just a few days after the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in the European Union, Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ:FB) and Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) are likely to become the first victims.
Noyb group, a privacy advocacy groups has filed a privacy complaint against WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Google. The complaints could see the company pays up to $9.3 billion in fines.
Take it or leave it approach
Noyb group has accused the companies of forcing their users into “a take it or leave it” arrangement. According to the group, the companies are merely asking users to agree with intrusive terms of service.
The group had indicated that the complaints will help in getting rid of the annoying pop-ups. The fight against forced is likely to help small companies that generally don’t force users to agree to their policies. They will be in a better position to compete with large tech companies.
In its filings, the group has requested regulators in Belgium, France, Austria and Hamburg to impose fines on the companies of up to 4% of their annual revenue.
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The affected have since disputed the accusations. According to a statement issued by Google, the company says it incorporates security and privacy into its products from the earliest stages of development. Google noted that it is fully committed to complying with the new rules.
On its side, Facebook said that it has been preparing for the last 18 months to comply with the new regulations. The regulations are likely to spark a war between the European Union and tech companies. This comes in the wake of Cambridge Analytica data breach, which has made people more aware and sensitive about privacy and data policies.
The mission behind General Data Protection Regulation
The GDPR were designed to give citizens in the European Union much control over their data as well as determines how there information is used online. The regulations became operational on Friday after a transitional period of two years. The effects of the new regulations were immediate. European citizens were blocked a number of US new websites just after the regulations became functional.