Facebook Challenged by Activist Who Broke EU-U.S. Data Pact
- Austrian activist plans mass privacy, consumer case in Vienna
- Social media giant tells court such a suit would bring chaos
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Facebook Inc. finds itself fighting an old foe, the Austrian activist who took on the social-media giant and brought down an international data-sharing pact two years ago. Now, Max Schrems is using a class-action suit that could represent as many as 25,000 users to accuse the social-media giant of further violations of privacy and consumer rights.
Schrems returned to the court that backed his earlier argument that the user data of EU citizens was not sufficiently protected when shipped to the U.S. This time, the 29-year-old privacy activist is hoping for the EU Court of Justice’s green light to bring an Austrian-style collective suit against Facebook with claims from around the EU and beyond.