As required by the Belgian Privacy Commissioner (BPC), Facebook will now cease the access to its pages for non-users in Belgium.

According to TechTimes, the BPC has issued a ruling that will ban Facebook from tracking cookies of non-users in Belgium. When this happens, non-users will not be able to access any of Facebook's pages, which is something that the California-based company begs to argue.

Facebook has been open about tracking the cookies for non-users in order to protect the accounts of those who are registered on the social media network in order to prevent the creation of bogus and hacked accounts.

In a report by the BBC, a spokeswoman for Facebook revealed that the company's ability to track cookies of non-users has enabled them to intercept at least 33,000 cases of hacking in the past months. The statement also said, "We're disappointed we're 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."

Currently, the ban is only applied to Belgium users and does not spread to other regions. Despite the company's argument, they have already started implementing the ruling, making non-users unable to see any of the company's pages.

The ruling has been primarily implemented in Europe in order to protect its citizen's private information. Nevertheless, it also posted some setbacks such as being unable to have access on what Facebook has freely shared even in the absence of a Facebook account. The ruling has also affected businesses that have relied on their Facebook pages in order to advertise their services to the public. The ease of access that non-users used to enjoy is now gone.

Paul Bernal of the University of East Anglia believes that the ruling will not be limited to Belgium as it is a European law. He said, "I think the other protection authorities in Europe will be looking at this. Belgium isn't applying Belgian law, it's applying European law."

Facebook, on the other hand, will continue to track cookies of those registered on the social media network. This is for the company to continue protecting their users' account and enjoy the company's services fully. The only option left now is for Belgian users to create an account on Facebook in order to access its services.

Do you think the European law, which is currently implemented in Belgium, will serve its purpose?