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.

The data protection watchdog warns companies that if they don't stop displaying Facebook Like buttons on their websites and if they don't remove their Facebook Pages, they risk fines of up to 50,000 euros.

Commissioner Thilo Weichert, head of the ULD, says that his organization has informally warned that some Facebook features are in conflict with the law for some time, but unfortunately companies did not stop using them out of convenience.

"Institutions must be aware that they cannot shift their responsibility for data privacy upon Facebook which does not have an establishment in Germany and also not upon the users," the commissioner says.

He also notes that ULD is working with other data protection authorities in Germany to continuosly review Facebook's features, especially since the website is constantly modifying its offerings.

"Nobody should claim that there are no alternatives; there are European and other social media available that take the protection of privacy rights of Internet users far more seriously," he writes. It remains to be seen if ULD's conclusions are shared by other data protection authorities in the country and if they lead to a decision at the federal level.