EU & U.S. Social Media Cos. Clash Over Personal Data Use

European Union (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Facebook and Google are fighting efforts by the European Union to restrict social media companies' efforts to sell users' personal data to advertising companies, according to a report by Reuters news service.

The growth of mining Internet users' data, such as browsing habits, by social media platforms, including Facebook and Google, has grown exponentially. The Reuters article estimates that Facebook could reap $10 annually from each user's clicking on ads, not exactly small change for a company that boasts 1 billion users.

EU lawmakers, concerned that its citizens have not given permission to have their personal data used in such a manner, are lining up behind European Parliament Member Jan Philipp Albrecht, who produced a report based on the European Commission last year calling for stricter data protection. Albrecht is expected to reveal his plan this week and the EU will vote on his final report in April, Reuters reported.

The plan may include provisions enabling authorities to levy fines against customer data violaters.

Can A Google Get Some Love?

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Bloomberg News reports that the European Commission, the antitrust arm of the 27-nation European Union, may investigate Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, to determine whether the search engine behemoth engaged in anti-competitive behavior.

Google controls 79 percent of the European search engine market, according to ComScore, Inc. Five months ago, Ejustice.fr, Foundem, and Ciao from Bing lodged an antitrust complaint against the company.  Google denies that its business operations run afoul of European competition laws. Faithful readers of "TUOL"--you know who you are--are familiar with posts over the past year involving various countries lining up to take potshots, and a tug at the purse strings of Google (see posts on  2/25/10, 1/11/10, 12/23/09).