Facebook Inc. is gearing up to fight a cascade of privacy investigations in Europe, arguing that regulators are overreaching in ways that could hurt the social network’s ability to protect users against hacking and fraud. […]
The two sides dispute whether the process is necessary for Facebook’s security. The firm says it uses the information from that cookie only to weed out browsers being piloted by a machine rather than a human, and discards the browsing data after 10 days. Machine-driven browsers are often used to hack into users’ Facebook pages, the company says. […]
Belgium’s privacy commission however, says the cookie isn’t necessary to protect users. A spokeswoman declined to provide further details but referred instead to a research report which it commissioned that found Facebook was violating European privacy law. Facebook has disputed those conclusions.
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