German Authorities Say Facebook Like Button Violates Privacy Laws
A German data protection authority warns companies that they might be fined if they continue to use the Facebook 'Like' and 'Pages' features which, according to its findings, violate local and European data protection laws.
The Data Protection Commissioner's Office (ULD) from the Northern German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein explains that the two features work in a similar way to web analytics software.
They gather identification information about visitors, such as IP addresses and IDs if logged into Facebook, information that is used by the company to build personalized profiles without their consent. "Such a profiling infringes German and European data protection law. There is no sufficient information of users and there is no choice; the wording in the conditions of use and privacy statements of Facebook does not nearly meet the legal requirements relevant for compliance of legal notice, privacy consent and general terms of use," ULD notes.
