MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti) - Austrian law student Max Schrems said he plans to file a class-action lawsuit against Facebook over the possible collaboration with US National Security Agency (NSA), Austrian news source "The Local" has reported.
The lawsuit considers the policy of data security and the alleged collaboration between the Facebook management and NSA within the framework of the PRISM program, collecting personal data.
This is not the first time Schrems tries to achieve a higher level of personal data security in the social networks. According to the EU legislation, every citizen of the EU-member state has a right to demand a copy of all personal data that a particular company has managed to collect about that person. In this regard, an Austrian received a 1,200 – page electronic document from Facebook with his personal data, including all his personal chats.
“In the beginning we made great progress in Ireland. As a result of our complaints, Facebook had to delete data and deactivate its facial recognition all over the world. However, over time it became clear that the Irish authorities had no interest in enforcing substantial changes. The proceedings will soon reach the end of their third year and we are still being promised a decision “in the near future”,” The Local quoted Schrems as saying.
The NSA got involved in intelligence scandal after Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, who leaked details about the secret PRISM program. In June 2013, he handed to Washington Post and Guardian several classified documents on Internet surveillance programs used by US and UK intelligence agencies.
Later, it was reported that large tech companies including Miscrosoft, Apple, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and others had allowed the NSA to build in backdoors to monitor users' data.
