A Belgian court has ordered Facebook to stop tracking users who are not members of the social network.
The order relates to a Facebook cookie that tracks the activities of anyone who visits the website, regardless of whether the person is logged in to the social network or not.
The cookie gathers information such as which pages the user visits and how long they stay on each page.
Belgian law says that this counts as “personal data” and that companies must have explicit permission from users before gathering such data – something that is not the case for non-members.
Facebook has been ordered to remove or alter the cookie within 48 hours, such that it does not track non-members.
If it does not comply it will receive a fine of 250,000 Euros per day until it does so.
Facebook has kicked back against the order, saying: “We will appeal this decision and are working to minimise any disruption to people's access to Facebook in Belgium.”Â
