Some US portals are no longer visitable to European citizens because of the GDPR. Do Facebook and Google, accused of breaking it, risk the same fate?
The scenario is one of worrying ones, at least for those who usually surf online and use services like Google and Facebook. According to a group of European activists for the defense of privacy, Google and Facebook would not respect the dictates of the GDPR, the new European regulation for data protection.
The complaint was presented on May 25 (day of entry into force of the GDPR) by the non-governmental organization Nyob (acronym of Not your own business), led by Austrian lawyer Max Schrems, who already in the past had occasion to criticize some positions taken by Facebook in terms of treatment of personal data. In this case, Nyob and Max Schrems have pointed their finger at Facebook, Instagram WhatsApp and Android, guilty, according to them, of never having respected the European regulation for the protection of data.
Schrems brings as an example the behavior, according to him, not very correct of Facebook. The social network, in fact, would have blocked the accounts of users who refused to accept the new policy on data processing. As a matter of fact, in order to continue to use the social network created by Mark Zuckerberg, it would be forced to accept the written conditions, otherwise goodbye to profile, photos and friends. "
What happens if Facebook and Google don't respect the GDPR
If Nyow and Schrems should be right - and the expert Austrian jurist has already had the opportunity to assert his reasons compared to those of the Silicon Valley bigwigs - disturbing scenarios could open up, as mentioned. But not so much for the users, as for the same companies involved. Even if some U.S. information portals are currently not reachable and visitable by European IP addresses because of the GDPR, Facebook, WhatsApp and Google would "only" risk a colossal fine. According to the regulation, in fact, in case of non-compliance with the data protection directives, the companies risk a fine of up to 4% of their annual budget. A very high figure, given the ability to produce profits by the two giants: according to some analysts, the fine could be around $ 9.4 billion, the largest ever imposed.