No one likes being tracked, and worst of all is when websites track you without even telling you. Of course it’s probably not as nefarious as you think. Sometimes tracking is so that websites can learn more about you and maybe help serve up ads that are more suited to what you like and what they think you might be interested in.
However over in Belgium, it seems that the legal system isn’t too amused and have given Facebook a two-day ultimatum. Basically they told Facebook to stop tracking visitors to its website, even those who aren’t signed in or even have Facebook accounts. If the social network does not comply, they are expected to be served a fine of €250,000 a day until they do.
This ruling comes on the heels of a complaint by the Belgian Privacy Commission that was filed several months ago. It alleged that Facebook uses cookies to track the web movements of all its European visitors, and that the system put in place to opt out of being tracked is apparently ineffective in the EU.
According to Facebook, they claim that the cookies are used for security purposes. “We’ve used the datr cookie for more than five years to keep Facebook secure for 1.5 billion people around the world. We will appeal this decision and are working to minimize any disruption to people’s access to Facebook in Belgium.” That being said, a similar issue is happening in the US where Facebook (and other companies) are apparently no honoring the “Do not track” feature in browsers, and despite that the FCC has no interest in forcing them to do so either.