Facebook’s ubiquitous ‘like’
button found on
countless websites in Germany
was declared in
violation of the country’s
strictprivacy laws by a
state data protection official on
Friday. Thilo Weichert, who works
for the data protection
centre of the northern German
state of Schleswig-
Holstein, said the social network’s
application
allowing internet users to express
their
appreciation of something online,
illegally cobbled
together a profile of their web
habits. “Facebook can trace every
click on a website, how long I’m
on
it, what I’m interested in,” he said.
According to
Weichert, all the information was
sent to the US
company even if someone was
not a Facebook
member. Saying this contravened
both German and
EU privacy laws, Weichert
demanded websites in Schleswig-
Holstein remove the ‘like’ button
from
their offerings by the end of
September or face a
fine of up to €50,000. He said
Facebook probably used the data
for
advertising purposes and provided
website
operators an analysis of user
traffic. Facebook rejected
Weichert’s claim and said in a
statement that the website’s social
plug- ins were in
compliance with European data
protection laws.
The company admitted the ‘like’
button could pass
on information such as user IP
addresses, but said
the data was deleted after 90
days as per industry standard.
Facebook users remained in “full
control
of their data” while using social
plug-ins, the
statement said. Just earlier this
month, German data
protection authorities also said
Facebook’s new
facial recognition feature was
illegal and demanded
the social networking site end its
use and delete all related
information.
By using state of the art
technology, Facebook is
able to suggest which friends
might be in photos
that users upload. But the feature
has raised
concerns among privacy
advocates, who worry the
site is saving sensitive biometric

That Is a Governmrnt that knows why it's peoples privacy is very important. They've seen the impact of oppression and control so they get it. Unlike the visionless small minded buffoons we constantly elect.

The Germans are ahead of the curve on this one.
Facebook has now become the single most important minefield for data harvesting.

Look, even the BBC turned to facebook for a visual on this IC3 rogue-trader

UBS trader Kweku Adoboli arrested over 'rogue deals


Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14927432