So Google blows Germany’s demands and deadline on the Street View wi-fi data collection fiasco, and Germany reiterates that it wants the hardware and not just the data. Is there a showdown looming? In the meantime, Germany fires a warning shot across the bow of Facebook:
Germany’s national consumer-protection agency may take legal measures against Facebook if it finds that the social network’s new privacy controls do not meet German data-protection standards.
Carola Elbrecht, head of digital projects at the VZBV agency, welcomed the changes to privacy settings announced by Facebook late on Wednesday but expressed concern that users would still have to actively opt out of default settings making their data public.
“This obligates the user, and that’s a transgression of German law,” Elbrecht told Reuters on Thursday.
Read more on Reuters.
I find myself humming Bob Dylan’s “Everyone must get stoned” to myself while reading this, but substituting “sued” for “stoned.” Yes, I need to get away from the computer more.