Brussels/Berlin — Facebook’s small print may be the next big thing in the European antitrust arena, as watchdogs home in on how the world’s biggest social network collects information from users that helps generate vast advertising revenue. Germany’s Federal Cartel Office is examining whether Facebook essentially takes advantage of its popularity to bully users into agreeing to terms and conditions they might not understand. The details that users provide help generate the targeted ads that make the company so rich. In the eyes of the cartel office, Facebook is "extorting" information from its users, says Frederik Wiemer, a lawyer at Heuking Kuehn Lueer Wojtek in Hamburg. "Whoever doesn’t agree to the data use, gets locked out of the social network community," he says. "The fear of social isolation is exploited to get access to the complete surfing activities of users." The European Union’s antitrust arm has grabbed the limelight with eye-popping penalties for US technology firms it...
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