AUSTRALIANS will become second-class online citizens in a sneaky move by Facebook designed to rob them of new privacy rights.



The beleaguered social media giant, which suffered the biggest data scandal in its history this year, will be forced to deliver new privacy tools today, when European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force.



But Facebook will use a loophole to ensure Australians do not receive the same rights as their European counterparts, moving them from Facebook’s Irish arm to the United States, where privacy laws are more lax.



The move is likely to affect 1.5 billion Facebook users, including others in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.University of Sydney Business School professor Vince Mitchell said the move would have a detrimental effect on Australian social media users, who would be short-changed by Facebook’s decision.“After this move goes ahead, Australians’ rights will be diminished,” he said.“By taking them out (of the jurisdiction), they are effectively saying Australians will not be protected by the rights given to Europeans.”Mr Mitchell said Facebook had likely moved Australian users to avoid potential billion-dollar penalties for privacy breaches, as the European laws allowed for fines of up to four per cent of a company’s global annual revenue for breaches.But the move would also mean Australians couldn’t request investigations into how their information was being used, or seek compensation for the misuse of their personal information.



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