It’s started from Day-G or Day 1 of the GDPR compliance law coming into force. A digital rights NGO called None Of Your Business (noyb) has made an official complaint against – Google, Instagram, WhatsApp & Instagram.
In a statement, noyb said:
The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into force today at midnight is supposed to give users a free choice, whether they agree to data usage or not. The opposite feeling spread on the screens of many users: Tons of “consent boxes” popped up online or in applications, often combined with a threat, that the service cannot longer be used if user do not consent. One the first day of GDPR noyb.eu has therefor files four complaints against Google (Android), Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram over “forced consent”.
Max Schrems, Chair of noyb.eu, said in a statement, “Facebook has even blocked accounts of users who have not given consent. In the end users only had the choice to delete the account or hit the “agree”-button – that’s
not a free choice, it more reminds of a North Korean election process.”
The GDPR prohibits such forced consent & any form of bundling a service with the requirement to consent, claimed noyb. Consequently, access to services can no longer depend on whether a user gives consent to the use of data. On this issue, said the NGO, a very clear guideline of the European data protection authorities had already been published in November 2017.
Max said, “Many users do not know yet that this annoying way of pushing people to consent is actually forbidden under GDPR in most cases.”
An end of “forced consent” does not mean that companies can no longer use customer data. The GDPR explicitly allows any data processing that is strictly necessary for the service – but using the data additionally for advertisement or to sell it on needs the users’ free opt-in consent.
According to Max, anything strictly necessary for a service does not need consent boxes anymore. For everything else users must have a real choice to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”
Image Credit: noyb
