See You in Court: Belgium Points Finger at Facebook for Breaking Privacy

Belgium's national privacy watchdog has filed a lawsuit against the world's largest social network, Facebook, for allegedly violating Belgian and EU privacy laws.

Belgium’s Commission for the Protection of Privacy has claimed that the way Facebook tracks both its users and non-users via social plugins is out of line with Belgian as well as European privacy laws; the case is slated to be heard in a Brussels court on Thursday.

Speaking to the Belgian news outlet DeMorgen, the watchdog's head William Debeuckelaere said that Facebook's behavior "cannot be tolerated".

"Facebook treats its users' private lives without respect and that needs tackling. It’s not because we want to start a lawsuit over this, but we cannot continue to negotiate through other means," Debeuckelaere said.

He added that his watchdog wants "a judge to impose our recommendations; these recommendations are chiefly aimed at protecting internet users who are not Facebook members."

Earlier this year, Belgium’s Commission for the Protection of Privacy released a survey to show Facebook tracking logged-out users as well as non-users who visit sites that use plugins such as the like button; the survey said that the tracking is fulfilled without explicit consent.

Facebook has, meanwhile, expressed regret over the Belgian commission’s lawsuit, which it described as a show.

"We were surprised and disappointed that, after the [commission] had already agreed to meet with us on the 19 June to discuss their recommendations, they took the theatrical action of bringing Facebook Belgium to court on the day beforehand," a Facebook spokesperson said.

Facebook insists that the tracking of non-users is allegedly the result of a software bug, and that it is already being fixed.

The company reportedly has more than 1.4 billion users worldwide, its messaging app WhatsApp has over 800 million users, and another 300 million use the photo-sharing app Instagram.