Facebook Must Stop Tracking Non-Users

A Belgian court has ruled that Facebook has 48 hours to stop tracking people in Belgium who are not members of its social network. This issue arose as Facebook has been tracking persons who are not members of the social network. 

Facebook has said that it intends on appealing the decision and reacted by saying that the court order relates to a cookie which, it has used for five years.

The above-mentioned cookie is a simple text file that tracks a number of user data activities.  Researchers have found that non-members who visit any page that falls under the facebook.com domain would have the mentioned cookie which, has a two year lifespan installed on their browser.

In this respect, the Belgian court has ruled that Facebook needs consent in order to collect and gather such information, on the basis that Belgian law states that such information is personal data which, Facebook can only use of the internet user expressly gives his consent.