Cookies
In March 2015, an article1 on the Technology section of “The Guardian” reported Facebook’s misuse of user and non user data, actively breaching EU law. A report, commissioned by the Belgian data protection agency and conducted by researchers of the Centre of Interdisciplinary Law and ICT, the University of Leuven and Vrije Universiteit Brussels, had been published recently which denounced the abusive practices enforced by the company in regards to the tracking of user data for targeted advertising purposes. These practices extend beyond the platform itself, and apply to any website making use of its Facebook’s services (e.g. “share” and “like” buttons). This is possible by the placing of browser cookies which retrieve users’ online behaviour information. There are options offered for opting-out of advertisement on diverse online platforms, Facebook included. However, as the report shows, for EU citizens that just means the placing of a new cookie on the user’s computer.
You can read the report @ http://www.law.kuleuven.be/icri/en/news/item/facebooks-revised-policies-and-terms-v1-2.pdf
1: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/31/facebook-tracks-all-visitors-breaching-eu-law-report