EU versus Facebook: Will Weber take a hammer to Facebook’s social media monopoly? – by Samuel Stolton

 Dumb fucks.” That’s how Mark Zuckerberg described users of Facebook for trusting him with their personal data back in 2004. If the last week is anything to go by, he was right.

Manfred Weber, the head of the EPP group in the European Parliament and lead candidate for Jean-Claude Juncker’s job as the next European Commission president, threw down the gauntlet on Friday (28 September), suggesting that he may support a breakup of Facebook and Whatsapp.

“I consider it necessary to ask the monopoly question,” Weber told the German newspaper Spiegel. Weber announced his candidacy for the top EU job in early September and has also received backing from German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“The European Commission should consider whether, for example, after the acquisition of Whatsapp and Instagram, Facebook has a dominant position. In extreme cases, a breakup should also be conceivable,” he said.

Weber also noted that Facebook will continue to be under close scrutiny from the European Parliament, and called on the internet giant to be more transparent in its advertising activities.

The EU’s Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová has put pressure on Facebook to disclose further details of the massive security breach that impacted around fifty million users last week.

In a statement on Sunday (30 September), Jourová urged Facebook to comply fully with the body in charge of investigating the breach, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, and disclose whether EU users were affected by the breach and how their personal data was impacted.

At least 50mln #Facebook users were compromised in the huge security breach. I urge Facebook to fully cooperate with @DPCIreland. We need to know if EU users were affected and what had happened to their data. Here a reminder about the obligations of biz https://t.co/1bZ6IJdJ4B

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission struck a similar tone on Sunday when they announced that they are still waiting for “further urgent details” of the security breach…[to]…properly assess the nature of the breach and risk to users.”

Facebook said on Friday (28 September) that hackers had discovered a security flaw allowing them to capture data belonging to up to 50 million Facebook users.

According to the New York Times, Facebook’s VP for product management, Guy Rosen, has refused to rule out the possibility that the attack may have been coordinated by a nation-state.

Rosen has stated that the hackers were targeting people’s private information, including name, gender and location.

Due to the lack of disclosure given on the specifics of the hack thus far by Facebook, it currently remains unclear as to whether more sensitive information has been accessed.

Read more: Will Weber take a hammer to Facebook’s social media monopoly? – EURACTIV.com

Germany dismisses report no-spy talks with US close to collapse- by Erik Kirchbaum

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government on Tuesday brushed aside a report that talks with Washington to prevent further U.S. spying on German ministers faced collapse, saying it continued to push for a deal on the politically explosive issue.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said talks about reaching a "no-spy" agreement were proceeding. He would not comment directly on a Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper report that they were close to failing due to U.S. intransigence.

After reports last year that the National Security Agency (NSA) of one of Germany's closest allies had monitored Merkel's mobile phone, Berlin has sought a sweeping agreement to prevent any repeat of such a humiliation.

De Maiziere said that remained the goal. "That's just not on at all," he told a news conference on Tuesday, referring to reports that Merkel's phone was tapped.

The widely respected Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported the talks were close to collapse because U.S. officials refused to promise that Washington will refrain from eavesdropping on German ministers or other top government officials.

"We're not getting anything," a German BND intelligence agency source was quoted by the Munich daily as saying.

A government source in Berlin told Reuters the United States remained interested in a deal but was loath to give a blanket pledge not to try to monitor government members.

Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Staff at the White House said discussions with Germany so far had yielded "a better understanding of the requirements and concerns that exist on both sides".

Read more: Germany dismisses report no-spy talks with US close to collapse | Reuters

Germany: Merkel Urges Europe to Tighten Safeguards and Rules on US Internet Companies - by James Kanter

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is calling for the European Union to adopt legislation requiring Internet companies to disclose what information about users they store and to whom they provide it.

Ms. Merkel’s remarks, in a television interview on Sunday night, reflected the anger throughout much of Europe, including Germany, over recent accounts of government surveillance by the United States National Security Agency. Those accounts, in government documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, a former N.S.A. contractor, included the agency’s compilation of logs of virtually all telephone calls in the United States and its collection of e-mails of foreigners from the major American Internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and Skype.

Those companies have already begun aggressive lobbying campaigns to stop or dilute tighter privacy rules, which they say would interfere with their business models and decrease profits and growth. The companies’ efforts are, in turn, supported by countries like England and Ireland that fear that such restrictions would hamper economic recovery. 

Unlike many citizens in the United States, whose desire to prevent the kind of widespread terrorist attacks like those of Sept. 11, 2001, often trumps their concerns about privacy rights and government surveillance, Germans have experienced the corruption of those rights under the Nazis and later the Communist government of East Germany, making them far more sensitive to the issue. Until now, though, Germany has been slow to back an aggressive privacy initiative across Europe partly because the country’s laws are among the tightest in the bloc. 

Ms. Merkel said she now believed that only a broader pact could be effective. “That has to be part of such a data privacy agreement because we have great regulation for Germany, but if Facebook is registered in Ireland, then it falls under Irish jurisdiction,” she said. “Consequently we need a common European agreement.” 

Note EU-Digest: the EU Parliament and the EU Commission hopefully will act immediately on these suggestions by Mrs. Merkel. The situation in relation to privacy rights of EU Citizens and the flagrant abuses by  foreign internet companies of these rights is completely getting out of hand.  

Read more: Merkel Urges Europe to Tighten Internet Safeguards - NYTimes.com

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