Saturday, August 27, 2011


Facebook's 'Like' Button Declared Illegal by German State

In some ways, Germany today is just as nutty as it was in the 1930s
"Facebook's famous "Like" button has been declared illegal under Germany's strict privacy laws by data protection officials.

The north Germany state of Schleswig-Holstein demanded that dozens of websites that carry the button linking to the social networking site remove the offending item by the end of September or face a fine of up to €50,000 ($71,935), The Local reported Friday.

Thilo Weichert, of the state's data protection center, said the application allowed Facebook to illegally piece together a profile of web users' habits. "Facebook can trace every click on a website, how long I'm on it, what I'm interested in," he said.

Source



6 comments:

A. Levy said...

Nutty? Because they're trying to protect their people? Their nutty-ness is a lot better than our weakness and stupidity.

Anonymous said...

Mice don't "Like" people, people do. Stupid, overprotective, nanny state.

stinky said...

Same theme as the post about the British Police: bullies make a show of going after the soft targets in order to hide their reluctance to go against the hard ones.

All websites need to be run "offshore" in multiple jurisdictions these days.

stinky said...

Because they're trying to protect their people?

Protect you from yourself? I thought only kittens hissed at a mirror.

stinky said...

P.S. Wanna bet that "Thilo Weichert" likes internet porn? Just sayin'....

Anonymous said...

Interesting view point. Profiling. Maybe an application can be created to make anonymous likes. I think people might be a little more concerned if they discover that Facebook is selling those profiles. Or if a government or commercial company was creating them. I am slightly creeped out by the box frame that says, “Items related to your post”. I’m a little torn on if this German ruling is a good thing or a bad thing.