CERN physics lab drops Facebook over data concerns

GENEVA – Europe's physics lab CERN on Wednesday said it had stopped using a Facebook team-chat application because of concerns about handing over data to the U.S. tech giant. CERN said it wound up its Facebook Workplace account on Jan. 31 after the U.S. firm gave it the choice of either paying to use the service or sharing data. "Losing control of our data was unacceptable," CERN said in a blog on Jan. 28, confirmed to AFP by spokeswoman Anais Rassat on Wednesday. CERN said it started using Workplace when it was offered the service for free in 2016. It said some 1,000 members of the CERN community had created accounts and there were around 150 active users each week.