Facebook has postponed the launch of its new dating feature in the EU.
The decision has come after the Data Protection Commission had raised concerns.
DPC statement on Facebook dating feature https://t.co/ATWAlaWnIF pic.twitter.com/MSvsgtyiUW
— Data Protection Commission Ireland (@DPCIreland) February 12, 2020
The DPC says Facebook Ireland had first contacted it about the new feature on February 3rd - 10 days before the feature was due to launch.
The Commission says it was very concerned that this was the first that it had heard about it as Facebook had provided no information or documentation in relation to the Data Protection Impact Assessment.
The DPC tried to expedite all that work, and so carried out an inspection of Facebook's offices in Dublin 2 days ago.
Last night, the DPC was told Facebook is postponing the rollout of its dating feature.
A spokesperson for Facebook says "It’s really important that we get the launch of Facebook Dating right so we are taking a bit more time to make sure the product is ready for the European market. We’re under no legal obligation to notify the IDPC of product launches. However, as a courtesy to the IDPC, who is our lead regulator for data protection in Europe, we proactively informed them of the proposed launch almost two weeks in advance. As we are also not obliged to share documentation we did not include these, but once requested we shared relevant documentation, including the data processing impact assessment with the IDPC.”
