Facebook like warning
A German public official who wants to clip the wings of social-networking site Facebook threatened Friday to fine any third-party websites that employ a Facebook “like” button.
As privacy commissioner for the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Thilo Weichert is independent of government and has broad powers to both investigate and fine all website owners in his state.
He said he would go after private and public sites that feature Facebook’s “like” and “dislike” buttons, which show a thumbs-up or thumbs-down symbol and allow web users to rate the websites they encounter.
Weichert charged that the buttons breach privacy because they could enable Facebook to compile a profile of all the sites that one computer user liked or disliked and thus guess at their opinions.
Even if a user is not registered with Facebook, the US website can tell when the same computer is used to vote on a succession of sites.
Facebook rejected the accusations. It conceded that it received technical data which could be used to identify each user computer, but said it deleted that information within 90 days in accord with European Union law and industry standards.
It added that users are in full control of their data from the buttons, which are known as “social plugins.”
Facebook is the world’s biggest social network with 750 million registered users. Like-dislike votes help Facebook sell advertising and allow third-party websites to judge who is using their sites and what for.
Weichert issued a finding that site owners in Schleswig-Holstein were legally responsible for the collection of such information and gave them a deadline of the end of September to eliminate the buttons.
Weichert’s office, the ULD, can impose summary fines of up to 50,000 euros on those who disobey his orders.
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