In a landmark case, a court in Australia has fined several meta-firms over consumer protection breaches related to their ‘Onavo Protect’ app.
The Court of Federal Circuit of Australia found that the firms had breached Australia’s consumer protection laws by using ‘Onavo Protect’, an app developed and offered to consumers, to collect extraneous and personal data in a manner that was not made clear to consumers.
The companies fined were Facebook and its affiliates, as well as Facebook Ireland Limited, which was the developer of the Onavo Protect app. The companies were ordered to pay a total of $ 590,000 in fines.
Onavo Protect was an app offered by Facebook to millions of consumers in Australia to safeguard their online activity. However, what was unknown to many consumers was that the app collected and tracked data related to all of their online activities, including information on the websites they visited, search terms, and even their physical locations. This data was then used for Facebook’s own commercial purposes.
The Court found that the firms had breached key provisions in the Australian Consumer Law. Its judgment stated that the companies had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct, had made false or misleading representations to consumers, and had engaging in unconscionable behavior.
The fines are large by Australian standards, and show that such companies cannot think that they can get away with this kind of behavior. Additionally, the Court ordered that the companies must better inform consumers about how their data will be used in the future.
While the fines may be a deterrent to other firms considering such conduct, it is up to the courts around the world to take a tougher stance on such practices and protect consumers. Hopefully, this landmark case and its outcome will be taken as a warning to other companies of the need to comply with consumer protection laws.
