

German data protection authority puts fine on FB like button integration - neXter
https://www.datenschutzzentrum.de/presse/20110819-facebook.htm

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mirrorskin
So for the German data protection authority it's fine that all european flight
passenger records and all direct debit transactions are transferred to the US
because of the "international war on terror", but Facebook's "like" button is
a severe privacy issue?

How pathetic.

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DasIch
The title is wrong, this is just a local agency who is trying to enforce this.
Nobody really cares if they are fine with whatever happens at EU level, in
fact most people in Germany are currently wondering what the hell they are
doing.

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neXter
English translation:
[https://www.datenschutzzentrum.de/presse/20110819-facebook-e...](https://www.datenschutzzentrum.de/presse/20110819-facebook-
en.htm)

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Argorak
Please be aware that this is a local authority, it does not apply to whole
germany. Also, Thilo Weichert is not a politician, his job is to enforce
standing data protection laws in Schleswig-Holstein.

While I do not support his interpretation of the law, I see how he came to his
conclusions. And his job is to enforce these conclusions, so I am a bit split
on that topic.

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rpl007
To all the people saying this would affect only Schleswig-Holstein: Facebook
is breaking German federal laws (BDSG, TMG) by not obeying to their
requirements when handling personal data. This has nothing to do with
Schleswig-Holstein.

The only interesting question is whether you as a German company or individual
can be held responsible if you include facebook's like button on your website.
Thilo Weichert says yes, but we'll have to see how the first judges will
decide on this matter. If he is right then this is true for whole Germany.

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karl_nerd
This is a local politician, Thilo Weichert, trying to make a name for himself.
I think everyone in germany except him are wondering what he is doing.

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consonaut
Reading the paper posted at
[https://www.datenschutzzentrum.de/facebook/facebook-
ap-20110...](https://www.datenschutzzentrum.de/facebook/facebook-
ap-20110819.pdf) it seems if he finds a judge who understands it he could very
well get an injunction prohibiting websites from deploying a working like
button to german users. Failure to comply would result in a fine of 50.000€
under current law. Of course it would only be enforceable on websites hosted
in germany. I don't agree with his assertion that he can apply the german TMG
(TeleMedienGesetz) to Facebook since they have no hosting presence in Europe,
as far as I know. And even then there would still be the trouble of enforcing
it.

I actually think that would be a good thing, I don't like being tracked
through the like button if I forgot to log out.

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td
Just to remark that this seems to only apply to the state of Schleswig-
Holstein, or, according to Wikipedia, 2.8 million of ~80 million Germans.

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consonaut
It's the only state with an agency trying to enforce it right now.

The applicable laws are federal laws.

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driverdan
Can anyone cite exactly what laws FB is breaking and how they're breaking
them? Is FB gathering data beyond the basics of URL and title? Is FB using
traffic data gathered via the like button as claimed here (with citation
please)?

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consonaut
<http://dejure.org/gesetze/BDSG/4a.html>

<http://dejure.org/gesetze/TMG/13.html>

<http://dejure.org/gesetze/TMG/15.html>

Seem to be the most important ones.

Source: [https://www.datenschutzzentrum.de/facebook/facebook-
ap-20110...](https://www.datenschutzzentrum.de/facebook/facebook-
ap-20110819.pdf)

