Australia suing Facebook over use of VPN user data

SYDNEY: Australia’s consumer watchdog launched legal action against Facebook on Wednesday, alleging the social media giant “misled” thousands of Australians by collecting user data from a free VPN service advertised as private.

The platform could face a fine if found guilty of deceiving users, as Australia takes an increasingly assertive stance towards powerful US tech titans.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accused Facebook and two of its subsidiaries — Facebook Israel and Onavo Inc — of misleading people who downloaded its virtual private network (VPN) app Onavo Protect, by collecting and using their “very detailed and valuable personal activity data”.

Records of which apps they accessed and the amount of time they spent using them were among the data…