Germany: Facebook Like Button Violates Privacy Laws

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Facebook’s Like button today was found in violation of Germany’s strict privacy laws. Commissioner Thilo Weichert, who works for the Independent Centre for Privacy Protection (ULD) in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, said the social network’s plugin, which allows Internet users to express their appreciation of something online, illegally puts together a profile of their Web habits.

The ULD said if you visit Facebook.com or use a Facebook plugin such as the Like button, you should expect to be tracked by the company for two years: Facebook allegedly builds a broad profile for individuals not on the service as well as a more personalized profile for its members.

Traffic and content data are transferred to Facebook’s servers in the US and an analysis is sent back to the website owner concerning the usage. The ULD believes such profiling infringes German and European data protection law. Users are not given sufficient information about this and the wording in Facebook’s conditions of use and privacy statements do not meet the legal requirements relevant for compliance of legal notice, privacy consent, and general terms of use, according to the ULD.

Germany: Facebook Like Button Violates Privacy Laws - ZDNET Blog

[caspian]

Oh wow. I had no idea that it was so intrusive! I used it once to try and get a free sub for Zemana. But it didn't work. But I did it with a phoney account set up while connected to a VPN and with Sandboxie, so I guess I'm safe.