Although we think it’s generally a pretty nifty feature, valid concerns over the misuse of Facebook’s auto-recognition tagging have lead Germany to ban it entirely. That’s right — Facebook in its current state is now illegal. Deep Scheiße, Zuckerberg.
The German government — which possesses perhaps the world’s most adamant privacy laws as a result of postwar abuse — considers The Book’s facial recognition a violation of “the right to anonymity,” The Atlantic reports. Hard to imagine anyone saying that over here, isn’t it?
Unless Facebook makes sufficient changes — by making it easier for German users to delete their stored faces, or even disabling the feature entirely — they’ll face up to $US500,000 in fines. Which, really is absolutely nothing to Facebook. But the bad press — a powerful country declaring your website illegal — is probably worth a hell of a lot more than a half a million.
Facebook has two weeks to respond. They maintain they’re not breaking any laws. [The Atlantic]