Four Dutch privacy organisations and several individual social media users have challenged Facebook to come up with a solution over the way it stores information about Dutch users by January 15.

If Facebook does not comply, they plan to take the social media platform to court for breaking privacy agreements, tech website Tweakers.nl reported.

On October 6, the European Court of Justice tore up the ‘Safe Harbour‘ treaty which had eliminated the need for local privacy watchdogs to check US firms were taking adequate data protection measures.

The treaty, which came into operation 15 years ago, said US department of commerce principles provided ‘adequate protection for the purposes of personal data transfers from the EU’.

This decision effectively ended the automatic right US companies had to store information about their European clients in the US.

The Dutch organisations say Facebook continues to send information about its European clients back to the US, despite the lack of regulatory controls. If the company cooperates with finding a solution they will ask the Dutch courts to intervene.