http://ow.ly/7rRB0
An article by Lucian Constantin and Jeremy Kirk appearing on the cfoworld.co.uk website.
This article discusses legal action that is in the works in Germany, as the Hamburg Data Protection Authority (DPA) is taking steps to litigate against Facebook based on facial recognition techniques that Facebook reportedly uses on photos posted on the site.
The article states, "German data protection laws require companies to clearly inform users about how their personal information is being used and the Hamburg data protection agency says that this didn't happen when Facebook began using facial recognition technology for photo tag suggestions.
As a compromise, Facebook proposed the introduction of a checkbox for users to accept terms and conditions and guidelines on data usage, but the DPA feels that such a solution is not enough to legitimise the collection and use of biometric facial characteristics."
The article states that Facebook feels it is complying with EU regulations, and also states that there are jurisdictional issues at play, since Facebook's EU presence is in Ireland, not Germany. The regulations from Germany to Ireland do not match identically, and Facebook will use this as a partial defense against the German claims.
In addition, the article further points out, "Facebook is also having privacy-related legal issues in the US where it is reportedly close to settling accusations of deceptive trade practices brought by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC investigated Facebook after it made certain user details public in December 2009 as a result of changes to its privacy settings."
No comments:
Post a Comment