Following the ruling, a Facebook spokesperson echoed this sentiment. “We’ve used the ‘datr’ cookie for more than five years to keep Facebook secure for 1.5 billion people around the world,” a spokeswoman said. “We will appeal this decision and are working to minimise any disruption to people’s access to Facebook in Belgium.” CPVP meanwhile said Facebook may find it hard to convince the Belgian courts. The court said that “even an ‘internet illiterate’ understands that systematically collecting the datr cookie as such is insufficient to counter the attacks referred to by Facebook because criminals can very easily circumvent this cookie from being installed by means of software which blocks cookies being installed,” according to a CPVP statement. The decision is a significant victory for data protection agencies in Europe concerned with Facebook’s tracking policies. Regulators in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain are also looking into whether Facebook’s privacy policies are in violation of their data protection rules.
