French Crack Down On Facebook Privacy Violations

The French government is known for some of its more people-centric privacy laws, which is part of the reason so many celebrities choose to make their home in-country. Now, the government is cracking down on some seemingly innocuous terms of service in Facebook’s system, claiming that the current terms violate their privacy laws.

Facebook, like many other internet entities, uses cookies that it tracks for up to two years, even on people who are not members of the site and therefore did not agree to the lengthy terms of service. If an internet user clicks a link and watches a video that was uploaded to Facebook instead of YouTube, for example, that individual can view the video without being a member, and that person’s web behavior is tracked.

France has said that’s against their laws.

While issuing the desist order that Facebook must comply with within three months (at the risk of facing heavy fines), the government also took some further steps to safeguard its citizens privacy. Facebook must now require an eight character password instead of six, as it currently requires around the world. In a much bigger step, Facebook must also stop sharing information on French users’ web activity–site members or not–with the US government. Under a previous agreement called the Safe Harbour Agreement, Facebook could voluntarily or be compelled to turn over information on its users to US officials. That agreement has been rescinded and a new agreement put in place, but the new agreement has yet to go into effect. The French government isn’t taking any chances, though; agreement or not, the social media site has been warned to stop sharing information.