The foundation from São Paulo, Procon (Consumer Protection and Defense Program), applied a fine of R$ 9.9 million to Google and another of R$ 7.7 million to Apple for violating the Brazilian Consumer Defense Code by making the application “FaceApp” available in their online application stores. The application “FaceApp” ages the faces of users in photos. The main reasons for the fines, among other specificities, are that the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use were in English (which made it considerably more difficult to understand than had it been available in Portuguese, hindering transparency) and that the companies had abusive terms in their policies and terms regarding the transferring and sharing of data, as well as an absence of an opposition mechanism for data subjects.
On the other hand, the fined companies claim they have no power to interfere with the application’s policy in question, since the service their platform provides is only that of intermediation and hosting of applications owned by third-parties. Also, they state that according to the Brazilian Internet Law (“Marco Civil da Internet”), online stores cannot be liable for third-party applications.
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Collaboration: intern Bruna Toniolo Lopes.