FB’s ‘Like’ Button Declared Illegal In Germany

Hm, re-reading my post it sure sounds more hostile than intended :slight_smile:

Yes, you can turn it off. But most people don’t know that and the default is “on”.

Same goes for the tracking done by Like buttons. Ask mom and she might say, if she somewhat follows general news, that it does some kind of tracking for something, but no biggie. She doesn’t realise it tracks her when she’s logged out of Facebook for example. She might know it adjusts what kinds of ads she sees, and she might not care (or even appreciate that at least the ads are somewhat related to her interests), but she doesn’t realise or know about the massive multi-gazillion-(monitaryUnit) business invested in buying and selling as much of her personal info as possible. Not just to advertisers. To everyone.

And some of those businesses aren’t businesses. US security agencies are in on it as well. I can totally imagine German citizens not wanting their info being funneled to some foreign government’s dark caves. Some of us are angry that the US is insisting on our banking and health information. Hell, I’m pissed too. It’s all done under the excuse of “fightin’ terr’sts”. Whatever. It’s global spying because they can, period.
If Germany doesn’t want to be a part of that, I totally understand. Also, laws are (supposedly, in a democracy) set by the will of the people. People change their minds. Laws can be repealed or amended.
But, on the other hand, they could go further: say they were against the NCSA and decided to make Google illegal. However, I doubt they could do that: there wouldn’t be enough support and it would be too difficult. The googles, they’re everywhere.

[ot]
This morning: my husband has G+. Dunno why, it’s useless. But anyway lots of people in his profession who work in his language are in his circle things or whatever.
So he did a google search for something this morning. In one of the results, underneath it, was “this was posted on (social bloggy site) by (someone in one of his circles).” One of the more blatant screwing up of search results.

I’m so glad I’ve never signed up for a single google service… except I had an account on YouTube and now I can’t log in since they want to force a connection with the email address they have there to Google. Luckily it’s an old spammy address but I refuse to explicitly link it. Beyond that, I’ve managed to stay away.[/ot]

*edit removed something because I’m having trouble finding the link to it

Thanks for you reply. I really appreciate that.

The thing is though, so are we to think that Most people in Germany don’t like Google street view? That would also mean they supported/sustained or maybe recommended to take away fb’s “like” button from their country.

We should keep in mind that “Germany” didn’t decide. It was just one state in Germany. That’s just like Texas (in the US) deciding to do something but saying that the US decided to do that which would be VERY far from accurate. :wink:

It was just one state in Germany.

still has voting citizens.

So far as I know, the google street view ban was country-wide.

Yes, I’m not arguing that.

I’m just saying that generalizing the actions of one state or area in a country as being the actions as a whole country it’s a bad idea. For those that live outside of the US, my analogy probably doesn’t mean much… Texas is one of the most conservative states in the US and they have laws that would never pass in other areas of the country.

I think the Google Street View is banned country wide as well, which means that “Germany” did decide to ban it. However “Germany” didn’t ban the like button (at least not yet), just one portion.

All I’m saying. :wink:

That is just so weird. Got this thread from another community calling germany right now to have the 4th reich of banning facebook button.

http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=27701.0 (I hope pasting this link here is ok)

Ward, nice link! :slight_smile:

I wonder if it was such a lowlife tabloid that it doesn’t post its articles on their website? one of those el-cheapo paper ones? As they say, they can’t find the 4th Reich stuff… but I laughed hard.

The US wants to pass another law that doesn’t LET, but FORCES ISPs to spy on their customers, and limit their access to certain (undisclosed) websites by redirecting them to other, US-gov’t approved websites… yikes, sounds like Netherlands back in the beginning of the interwebs! (when there was just the Dutch web, the rest of the world didn’t seem to exist). https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/disastrous-ip-legislation-back-–-and-it’s-worse-ever

So, I certainly have mixed feelings about government (or any large body) deciding which internets we get… but the way Facebook is so deliberately intrusive, I understand it entirely. You don’t have to click on a like button to get tracked. Just any page you come across that has one (it’s pretty much the same thing with the G+ button too).

I have read somewhere that the Problem with the ‘like’ button is that it always sends Facebook US data once it loads on a website.
You don’t have to have a Facebook account and you don’t have to ‘like’ something in order for this to happen. And that is the point where it becomes illegal as German law clearly states that YOU have to ACTIVELY give the permission to the website to give this data to others and this happens at no point.

Austin: correct.

Well, they are right. Some facebook page do get information about the likers.

"The bill also requires that search engines, payment providers (such as credit card companies and PayPal), and advertising services join in the fun in shutting down entire websites. "

Quoting from that article. Ha, I totally doubt if these “search engines and payment providers” are ever gonna comply with this bill. Pretty scary though.

Well, Google and PayPal for example are US-based entities. That means they do have to comply with US laws. I kinda keep wishing more similar companies would start up outside the US just for that reason. (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn as well.)

This isn’t a law yet. If it becomes a law, then US-based corporations will have to comply or lobby to get the law revoked.

Well, I guess I have to agree with you on that. I hope they do that first to porn sites.

Do you think if these companies will lobby to revoke the law (if it becomes a law), they will be successful? What would that imply on the security and safety of people on internet?

I think if the companies feel they would lose money, they may lobby to get it overturned. But lobbying isn’t a guarantee (well, unless your Big Something and have a bazillion lobbyists).

More secure? The internet is not secure and people need to stop waiting for some clueless government to rescue them by controlling everything they see and do. Just like when we drive we learn to drive defensively because nothing is guaranteed, when we use the internet we should be aware of how to use it safely. That’s personal responsibility. Letting someone spy on you in return for “security” isn’t the way.

Surprised to hear that a portion of a country actually banned the usage of a button from a site… I think someone is a bit over reacting to it. But who knows… oh well, I’m not in Germany, never the less that part of it, so this doesn’t affect me too much haha