Ger­man Data Pro­tec­tion Com­mis­sioner Bans Face­book Fan Pages And Like Buttons

Face­book like but­tons and fan pages not al­lowed in Ger­many’s state of Schleswig Hol­stein anymore. 

You may think this is a joke, but it is not. Ger­man pri­vacy pro­tec­tors asked web sites own­ers to re­move Face­book like but­tons from their sites, and threaten to fine € 50,000. They claim Face­book Like but­tons and Fan pages vi­o­late Eu­ro­pean pri­vacy law.

From the In­de­pen­dent Cen­tre for Pri­vacy Pro­tec­tion’s web site:

The Data Pro­tec­tion Commissioner’s Of­fice (In­de­pen­dent Cen­tre for Pri­vacy Pro­tec­tion - ULD) 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. Af­ter a thor­ough le­gal and tech­ni­cal analy­sis ULD comes to the con­clu­sion that such fea­tures are in vi­o­la­tion of the Ger­man Tele­me­dia Act (TMG) and of the Fed­eral Data Pro­tec­tion Act (BDSG), re­spec­tively the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of Schleswig-Hol­stein (LDSG SH).

You can read their rea­son­ing here:

https://www.datenschutzzentrum.de/presse/20110819-facebook-en.htm

If I told you now what I think about this newest Ger­man bu­reau­cracy stunt, I’d prob­a­bly go to jail…

What do you think? Tell me in your comments.