Associated Press reports:
Facebook has won a court battle against a German privacy watchdog that challenged the social networking site’s policy requiring users to register with their real names.
Schleswig-Holstein state’s data protection body said Friday it will appeal the court decision. It argues the ban on fake names breaches German privacy laws and European rules designed to protect free speech online.
The administrative court in northern German Schleswig argued in its ruling Thursday that German privacy laws weren’t applicable because Facebook has its European headquarters in Ireland – which has less far-reaching rules.
Read more on Herald Online.
The government plans to appeal the ruling, but I’m wondering how this will impact efforts to get more uniformity/harmonization of privacy protections in the EU. If a country cannot protect its citizen’s privacy because a firm is headquartered in another country that has less privacy protective laws, then that may serve to motivate countries to agree on more stringent laws that apply to all countries.