FB, Google 'manipulate' users to share data despite EU law

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Facebook and Google are pushing users to share private information by offering "invasive" and limited default options despite new EU data protection laws aimed at giving users more control and choice, a government study said yesterday.

The Norwegian Consumer Council found that the tech giants' privacy updates clash with the new General Data Protection Regulation, which forces companies to clarify what choices people have when sharing information.

"These companies manipulate us into sharing information about ourselves," the council's director of digital services, Finn Myrstad, said. "[This] is at odds with the expectations of consumers and the intention of the new Regulation," the 2018 study, entitled "Deceived By Design", concluded. Myrstad said the practices showed "a lack of respect for their users, and are circumventing the notion of giving consumers control of their personal data".

The case for the new laws has been boosted by the recent scandal over the harvesting of Facebook users' data by Cambridge Analytica for the 2016 US presidential election.

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