The Brazilian Institute for the Defense of Personal Data, Compliance and Information Security (SIGILO) filed a Public Civil Action for compensation for Moral Damages against Facebook at the Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJSP). The entity points to the social network as responsible for illegal sharing of personal data of users. The value of compensation could reach up to R$500 million.

Understand the case

According to SIGILO, the social network allegedly shared thousands of users' information without consent with companies and other services. As this is an unconstitutional act, it is asking that each affected user be compensated with R$5, in addition to the payment of a fine of R$500 million that will be transferred to the Diffuse Rights Defense Fund, an institution that is part of the Public Prosecutor's Office and serves to repair collective damages against society.

According to the lawyers proposing the action, Gustavo Rabay and Mariana Cunha Lima, the request for compensation considers the fact that Facebook shares countless user information to offer services and products derived from advertising campaigns.

Terms that harm users

In addition, lawyers include the policy adopted by new terms of use for Whatsapp that allow users to share their content with third-party companies and services that are Facebook partners without restrictions. These terms have been widely criticized by users and consumer protection organizations, like Procon. Facebook even said that users who did not accept WhatsApp's new terms of use would be excluded from the platform, but it's over going back on the decision.

According to Victor Hugo Pereira Gonçalves, president of SIGILO, the action also aims to “highlight to the population how Facebook is not a trustworthy company in its practices and demonstrates total disregard for the data of its holders”.

According to the president, the action also considers non-compliance with articles of the Brazil's General Data Protection Law, in addition to the laws of the Internet Civil Framework and the Consumer Protection Code.

In addition to compensation, the entity emphasizes that Facebook must adopt resources that allow users to control how and when their data is used.

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