Germany to sue Facebook over facial recognition

Protection is preparing a lawsuit against Facebook over the face detection function, which is used for photo tagging on social networks

Hamburg Protection (CBP) are preliminary procedures for the lawsuit against Facebook back on the Face Detection function used for photo tagging on social networks. The authority has decided that further negotiations are pointless after the social networking giant has no retroactive force agreement with the permission of the user.

German data protection laws require companies to clearly inform users about how their personal information is used and Hamburg Data Protection Agency says it does not happen when Facebook began using facial recognition technology for photo tag suggestions.

As a compromise suggested Facebook introducing a check box for users to general conditions and guidelines for the use of data to accept, but DPA believes that such a solution is not sufficient to justify the collection of biometric facial features and usage.

Moreover, this option is only available to new users, which means that people who are not already registered are asked for their consent. John Caspar, Hamburg commissioner for data protection and freedom of information, describes the results of several months of discussions with the social networking company as disappointing.

Hamburg Data Protection spokesman Maik Moller said the government is elected by the other German DPA to act in this case. Disputes will be brought before the Administrative Court of Hamburg and could result in a fine of up to € 300.000 ($ 407.000), and a ban, he added.

The Company does not agree with the German authorities and believes that litigation is unnecessary because the tag suggestions feature is consistent with EU data protection laws.

"We have extensive knowledge and educate our users about the roof and proposes that we create a very simple tool for people to opt out if they do not want this feature to work. We have carefully considered various options to make people even more aware about our privacy policy and is disappointed that the Hamburg data protection authority has not accepted it, "the company said in a statement.

There is a problem of jurisdiction because the European Office for Facebook is based in Ireland. Professor Joseph Cannataci who is an expert advisor on the European data protection to the European Council and coordinator of the EU-funded research Consent, explained that while the German constitution protects the right to personality and informational self-determination, fundamental laws in other EU countries can not do the same. The project focuses on permission-privacy issues related to online social networking and user-generated content.

The European Data Protection Directive of 1995 specifically excluded the right to informational self-determination, which includes the German constitution, Cannataci said. Moreover, the directive in the legislation of the Member States in the same way, not all European data protection authorities on identical case against Facebook takes Hamburg DPA.

"The European Commission is good to start, execute, and implement a comprehensive reform of the data protection regime" Cannataci said, referring to Monday's announcement by the EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding and Minister in Germany for Consumer Protection Ilse Aigner that the proposals for reform the EU directive on data protection will be made at the end of January 2012.

Facebook has privacy in terms of legal issues in the U.S. where it is reportedly close to settling allegations of deceptive trade practices brought by the FTC. The FTC investigated after Facebook made some user information public in December 2009 following changes to privacy.