Germany Bans the "Like" Button

[Andy Chalk]

Germany Bans the "Like" Button

Germany does not like Facebook's "Like" button.

Germany is all about the privacy. Facebook is not. Facebook is the antiprivacy, the place where people go to post their pictures, links and innermost vacuity, and where every possible bit of user data is sucked up and fired off, surreptitiously or otherwise, to marketers around the globe. Some governments have stepped in to protect people from themselves - Canada forced changes [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94239-Canadian-Government-Forces-Facebook-Changes] to Facebook's privacy policies in 2009 - but Germany is taking things to the next level by dropping the hammer on the "Like" button.

Thilo Wiechert, head of the Independent Center for Privacy Protection in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, claims that data belonging to anyone who clicks a "Like" button on a web page, Facebook user or not, is immediately sent to Facebook's servers in the U.S. "Facebook builds a broad individual and for members even a personalized profile. Such a profiling infringes German and European data protection law," the agency said in a press release. "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."

The agency "calls on all institutions in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany to shut down their fan pages on Facebook and remove social plug-ins such as the 'Like' button from their websites." Any organization that fails to do so by the end of September 2011 will be subject to a formal complaint which could lead to fines of as much as €50,000 ($72,000).

Weichert also urged users to "keep their fingers from clicking on social plug-ins" and not set up a Facebook account in order to avoid being profiled. Facebook, naturally, denied the claim and said it was in full compliance with Germany's privacy laws.

Sources: ABC News [http://siliconfilter.com/germany-vs-facebook-like-button-declared-illegal-sites-threatened-with-fine/]


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[John the Gamer]

Okay, where is the "like" button for this developement? lol.

Not that I care, since I still manage to keep away from facebook. I think I might be the only person left soon. XD

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Hehehe, this is so silly! Facebook vs Germany!

Facebook is popular but it really has the pure strength of will to take on Germany?

 

[Fayathon]

I find this mildly amusing, generally stemming from my hatred towards social network sites in general. I mean it sucks that you can get fined if you're German and you don't remove your "Like" plugins, but the fact that the government is reacting so strongly to it is kinda funny.

Not that I care, since I still manage to keep away from facebook. I think I might be the only person left soon. XD

Nah, I refuse to get into social networks at all, barring Steam, if that counts, but to me that's a gaming platform, not a social network.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Okay, where is the "like" button for this developement? lol.

Not that I care, since I still manage to keep away from facebook. I think I might be the only person left soon. XD

Believe me, there's a growing number of us. Bookface is the antisocial network.

Hehehe, this is so silly! Facebook vs Germany!

Facebook is popular but it really has the pure strength of will to take on Germany?

I'm just gonna call Godwin now. Someone's going to do it

 

[ShindoL Shill]

Okay, where is the "like" button for this developement? lol.

Not that I care, since I still manage to keep away from facebook. I think I might be the only person left soon. XD

not when everyone moves to Google+.
OT: well i dont give a crap. i never use it.

 

[Simple Bluff]

Between sacking its nuclear power plants (consequences be damned) and confronting Facebook, Germany's turning into a bloody hipster.

 

[AngryMongoose]

You don't actually have to press the like button for it to start taking data...

Anyone know how to get Noscript to automatically block Facebook on any page but Facebook? Doing it manually is kinda a pain.

 

[mjc0961]

Good for Germany. I wish more countries would ban that crap, because I'm sick of going to websites and having it take longer to load because it's having trouble loading the stupid "like" button and all the equivalents from other sites that are on the page.

Ban Facebook comments too while you're at it, I'm sick of waiting for those to load too. If I cared what people on Facebook thought of something, I'd go on Facebook and ask them.

 

[Roboto]

Does this mean we don't have to have that gaudy facebook social plugin that makes my browser take forever to load on here anymore?

 

[somonels]

Because Germany has always made rational, well-thought out decisions... right?

With a some exceptions, yes.

 

[Tiamat666]

I find this mildly amusing, generally stemming from my hatred towards social network sites in general. I mean it sucks that you can get fined if you're German and you don't remove your "Like" plugins, but the fact that the government is reacting so strongly to it is kinda funny.

Not that funny if you consider East Germany's not so distant past in which German citizens were systematically spied upon and privacy hollowed out by the STASI.

 

[Tiamat666]

Schleswig-Holstein wasn't part of the East.

No, it was part of the West that had to clean up the mess after reunification.
And your point is?

 

[HK_01]

Well, I'm not at all opposed to this. If it does infringe upon privacy protection laws in Germany and the EU (and it probably does) then there's nothing wrong with that course of action. Also, I hate and am sick of accidentally clicking on one of the gazillion "Like" or "Share" buttons strewn across pretty much every website out there.
Come to think of it, I'm generally sick of social networks worming their way into every corner of the internet, like the FB comments here on the Escapist. God, I wish there was a way to turn those off (there might be one and I'm just too dumb to see it though, for all I know).

 

[intheweeds]

Facebook, naturally, denied the claim and said it was in full compliance with Germany's privacy laws.

Well, I think Germany will be the judge of that, Mr. Zuckerberg.

Good for Germany. Are they going a little overboard here? Maybe, but we could all stand to take our privacy a little more seriously. Facebook does spread your info all over hell's half acre. Not to mention the sheer stupidity of the 'like' button. Only people who want to advertise to you ever care if you ever click one. It's pretty obvious why.

 

[balberoy]

Actually I am from Schleswig-Holstein and the Independent Center for Privacy Protection is actually a non government organisation wich is settled in every federal state seperatly.

But we in Schleswig Holstein have the most active for online security.
They are fonded by the government but have no obligation to do their bidding, they are just there to protect the people from data robbery ecetera...

We have some of the harshest privacy rules so we try to ensure our freedom.
In the modern times (now) you as a person can get tracked everywhere and german law forbids the tracking of your personal data without authorization.

So basicly, to make the "Like Button" work in german law, my guess would be, that they had to make a pop up box with the Information if it is okay to send your data. y/n

And this everytime you clicked the button.

So actually what they do is something wich is a tabu in my country.
Facebook sells your data as well, everyone knows and in the USA companies may have the law backing them up.

But if a german webpage sends those personalized information in the USA its data robbery without question.

Sry if my english isn't perfect.

 

[Ell Jay]

Sry if my english isn't perfect.

Truth is, your English (while not perfect) is refreshingly superior to that of many English speakers. I took intro German, so I appreciate where you're coming from.

 

[Svenparty]

(Insert joke about Germans lack of sense of humour)