European antitrust chief takes a swipe at issue of privacy

Munich

MARGRETHE VESTAGER, the European Union's antitrust chief, warned on Sunday that the collection of a vast amount of users' data by a small number of tech companies like Google and Facebook could be in violation of the region's tough competition rules.

Ms Vestager's comments are the latest in a growing chorus of European criticism about the privacy practices of US tech giants, many of which rely on crunching data on people's social media posts, online search queries and e-commerce purchases to fuel their digital advertising businesses.