Facebook has offered a special exemption from its data handling practices to Schleswig-Holstein after the northern German state’s data protection commissioner complained about the online social network’s popular “like” button.
Thilo Weichert, who leads the state’s data protection efforts, said in August that the site’s “like” button violated German privacy laws because it allowed Facebook to track members’ interests without their consent and sent the personal data to the United States.
But in a private meeting between Weichert and Richard Allan, Facebook’s head of privacy policy in Europe, the US internet giant offered to shield visitors to websites operated from Schleswig-Holstein from having their data sent to the United States. It also provided a full accounting of how it collects and uses users’ data, public broadcaster NDR reported on Friday.
Read more on The Local.
So Facebook will use IP addresses, and those coming from certain IP addresses will not have their data sent to the U.S., it seems.
There is something … frustrating… that German and Irish data protection authorities may be doing more to protect their citizens’ privacy than the American Congress has done.