Posted on 08/19/2011 3:01:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Facebook’s ubiquitous ‘like’ button found on countless websites accessible in Germany was declared in violation of the country’s strict privacy laws by a state data protection official on Friday.
Hackers gather around the computer campfire (11 Aug 11) Thilo Weichert, who works for the data protection centre of the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, said the social network’s application allowing internet users to express their appreciation of something online, illegally cobbled together a profile of their web habits.
“Facebook can trace every click on a website, how long I’m on it, what I’m interested in,” he said. According to Weichert, all the information was sent to the US company even if someone was not a Facebook member.
Saying this contravened both German and EU privacy laws, Weichert demanded websites in Schleswig-Holstein remove the ‘like’ button from their offerings by the end of September or face a fine of up to €50,000.
He said Facebook probably used the data for advertising purposes and provided website operators an analysis of user traffic.
Facebook rejected Weichert’s claim and said in a statement that the website’s social plug-ins were in compliance with European data protection laws.
The company admitted the ‘like’ button could pass on information such as user IP addresses, but said the data was deleted after 90 days as per industry standard.
Facebook users remained in “full control of their data” while using social plug-ins, the statement said.
Yes. With FF and NoScript you will be presented with a list of all scripts the website is serving up. Pick and choose the ones you want to run. You can blacklist google analytics, and many other sites permanately.
Thanks again. I installed it.
Hopefully, it won’t wreak havoc with Amazon - I use it extensively for DVD’s, CD’s, hard to find electronics, whatever...
You just need to delete your cookies ;-)
"Facebook can trace every click on a website, how long I'm on it, what I'm interested in," he said.Oh no! Heavens to betsy!
Thanks again. Great suggestion.
It turns off alot of that Google crap too, where he’s like following where your cursor is on the screen...
FN Java is everywhere!!
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