DHAKA: Facebook has said that it will respond to a privacy ruling in Belgium by requiring users to log in to view pages on the site.

The original ruling, made by the Belgian Privacy Commissioner (BPC) in November, relates to Facebook cookies that track the activity of non-users.

The company expects to receive an order this week, which it will contest.

But in the meantime, cookies will not be set for non-users and accounts will be needed to access content, reports the BBC.

Cookies are text files that record the web activity of users and the one in question, which Facebook has named datr, can live in a web user’s browser for two years.

Facebook has argued that the cookie provides better security for the site’s members by preventing the creation of fake accounts, reducing the risk of accounts being hijacked, protecting users’ content against theft and deterring denial-of-service attacks.

‘We had hoped to address the BPC’s concerns in a way that allowed us to continue using a security cookie that protected Belgian people from more than 33,000 takeover attempts in the past month,’ said a Facebook spokeswoman.

‘We’re disappointed we were unable to reach an agreement and now people will be required to log in or register for an account to see publicly available content on Facebook.’

BDST: 1321 HRS, DEC 03, 2015
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