Forbrukerrådet, the Norwegian Consumer Council, has studied the
privacy policies and terms and conditions of social networking
sites and says that many do not properly protect Norwegian users
and do not comply with Norwegian law.
"There are general principles of fair contracts and privacy that
must apply also in an online environment," said the Consumer
Council's assistant director Hans Marius Graasvold. "Nothing has
changed in that respect, except the online entrepreneurs at one
point just stopped caring about the law.”
“We can not let go of basic rights that have been built up over
time, just because the technological development currently seems to
have set us back," he said. "Consumer ombudsmen and the data
inspectorates need to step up to the test."
The Council and research institute SINTEF Technology conducted a
year-long study into how Norwegians use social networking services
and how this relates to the terms and conditions of those
services.
"On a daily basis consumers face excessive terms and conditions
when using their favourite social networks, search engines and
email services," said a Council statement. "The study confirms the
general belief that next to no one actually reads these terms, and
even fewer come close to understanding them. To top it off, all of
the social networks that were put under scrutiny by the NCC flunked
the 'fair contract' and 'privacy' test."
The Council said that it is currently preparing complaints
against Facebook and several other sites.
The Council was the body which raised legal objections to
Apple's iTunes online music shop and the fact that it tied music
sold there to Apple's iPod music players. The practice was declared
illegal by the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman. Apple later abandoned
the technology tying the music to its players.
The Council's Graasvold said that Norwegian law must apply to
services marketed to and used in Norway and that users of the
services must have greater access to data held by companies that
concerns them.
"If an online service site aims specifically at the Norwegian
market, as is the case for Facebook, Norwegian case law establishes
legal obligations under Norwegian law," he said. "Then the table is
set for [regulator] action. We believe that it is time for
[regulators] to enforce the principles that a person shall have the
right to know what kind of personal information is registered and
stored online, and have a realistic chance of rectifying or delete
information that is wrongful."
The Council also recently trained its sights on Amazon, claiming
that its Kindle electronic book reading device was too closely tied
to the Amazon online shop.
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