Facebook "Like" Button Declared Illegal In Germany

Facebook isn't liked in Germany. The social network has already been under fire in the country for its privacy issues pertaining to facial recognition feature used in identifying and tagging friends quickly in photos. And now, the German government has declared the Facebook "Like" button as being illegal.

Germany is very strict on privacy rights and deems the Like button as a violation of the country's privacy laws. Thilo Weichert, an official from the northern German state of Schelswig-Holstein data protection center, says that the Like button has the ability to track a person's movement across the web. Weichert adds that this also violates the data protection laws of the European Union.

Facebook has rejected the claims, stating that any data stored, such as web activity in relation to a unique IP address, is deleted after the industry standard 90-day period. Nonetheless, websites operated in Schleswig-Holstein have until September 30 to remove their Facebook Like buttons. A fine for failing to comply can be upwards of $72,000.

[via VentureBeat]