Foundation offers 1000 euros to people who prove that Facebook violates their rights

Through the app of the Foundation for Market Information Research (SOMI), Facebook users can check whether their data is on the digital street after the Facebook data breach in April. If users can prove that their leaked data dates from after May 2018, they can also win a reward of 1000 euros, offered ten times by SOMI, and a collective claim can be filed against the American company.

This article was published on 31th August 2021 on Hart van Nederland.

Please find the English translation below.

In April, data of more than 533 million Facebook accounts were leaked, including those of 5.4 million Dutch accounts. According to Facebook, there was indeed a leak, but it was an old story. “This is old data reported in 2019. We found and fixed the underlying issue in August of 2019,” a spokesperson for the leak said on Twitter in April. The company chose not to notify users of the leak.

Collective claim against Facebook

SOMI doubts whether it is actually an old leak and therefore calls on users to check via the app when their leaked data originates. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in May 2018, if it turns out that the leaked data comes from after that, it is a violation of that law and consumers - in addition to having a chance to win that thousand euros from SOMI - can participate in the legal process: SOMI investigation and a possible collective claim against Facebook.

Action against TikTok

Earlier this year SOMI started a collective action against TikTok on behalf of Dutch parents because the platform would not do enough to guarantee the safety and privacy of the children who use TikTok.

Click here for the original article on Hartvannederland.nl (in Dutch)