IANS | 02 May, 2016
The Italian data protection authority has ordered social
networking site Facebook to hand over personal data of an Italian user that was
hacked and used on his fake account by a "Facebook friend."
According to a report in Ars Technica, under the Italian law, the personal data
of both the real and fake accounts should be sent to the complainant by
Facebook.
Italy's data protection authority ordered Facebook neither to destroy the fake
account's data nor to process it further.
The agency wants the data to be saved for possible use in a criminal
investigation by the authorities.
According to the report, the Italian user approached the agency after he
received "unsatisfactory" response from Facebook on his complaint
about abuse of his account.
The user alleged that information and pictures were taken from his Facebook
account by a "friend" in order to create a fake account where his
personal data was posted, damaging his reputation.
The Italian agency then asked Facebook to provide all the data, including the
personal information, photos and posts to the original user.
Facebook, however, refused to comment on the Italian order, the report added.
“Although it was Facebook Ireland that had carried out the processing of the
personal data of the two accounts, the Italian data protection authority was
competent to find that Italian privacy laws had been broken,” the report noted.
New EU data protection rules which aim to give citizens back control of their
personal data and create a high, uniform level of data protection across the EU
approved by the EU parliament last month.
The reform also sets minimum standards on use of data for policing and judicial
purposes.
"This is a great success for the European Parliament and a fierce European
'yes' to strong consumer rights and competition in the digital age. Citizens
will be able to decide for themselves which personal information they want to
share", said Jan Philipp Albrecht (Greens, DE), who steered the legislation
through Parliament.
"The regulation will also create clarity for businesses by establishing a
single law across the EU. The new law creates confidence, legal certainty and
fairer competition", he added.