The Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt has ruled that Meta must enhance its default privacy settings to better protect users' personal data.

This ruling reinforces users' contractual rights regarding the proper handling of their personal information and mandates that Meta prevent unauthorized access by third parties through these default settings.

The court emphasized that users should not have to manually adjust settings to safeguard their privacy, indicating a systemic failure by Meta.

The ruling highlights the principle of data minimization outlined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires stricter protections for personal data.

This case is part of a broader trend where numerous Facebook users have sued Meta for unauthorized personal data collection, commonly referred to as scraping.

Concerns over privacy have been exacerbated by a significant data breach in 2021, which exposed the personal information of approximately 533 million Facebook users across 106 countries.

In 2022, the Irish Data Protection Commission fined Meta €265 million for mishandling user data, particularly through its contact import feature, which allowed large-scale data collection.

The practice of scraping, which involves the automated collection of public information from websites, is prohibited under GDPR without explicit user consent if personal data is involved.

In a related case, a plaintiff was awarded €200 for the stress caused by the potential misuse of her personal information disclosed on the darknet, despite initially seeking €1,000 in damages.

The court acknowledged that the plaintiff experienced psychological distress due to fears of data misuse, which justified the awarded compensation.

Ultimately, the court ordered Meta to pay €200 in damages to the plaintiff, who had previously had her claim denied by a lower court in April 2023.

The ruling, made public on April 8, 2025, found that Meta violated privacy rights by forcing users to actively change settings to secure their privacy instead of providing automatic protection.