You have been tagged in 12 photos. Even if you’re not signed up to the Web site.
European regulators are investigating whether the practice of posting photos, videos and other information about people on sites such as Facebook without their consent is a breach of privacy laws.
The Swiss and German probes go to the heart of a debate that has gained momentum in Europe amid high-profile privacy cases: To what extent are social networking platforms responsible for the content their members upload?
The actions set the stage for a fresh battle between US Web giants and European authorities a month after an Italian court held three Google executives criminally responsible for a user-posted video.
Any changes resulting from the investigation could drastically alter the way Facebook, Google’s YouTube and others operate, shifting the responsibility for ensuring personal privacy from users to the company.
Swiss and German data protection commissioners are demanding that Facebook explain its practice of allowing users to upload e-mail addresses, photographs and other personal details about people who haven’t signed up to the site.
“The way it’s organized at the moment, they simply allow anyone who wants to use this service to say they have the consent of their friends or acquaintances,” Swiss commissioner Hanspeter Thuer said.
To conform with Switzerland’s strict privacy law, Facebook could be required to contact people whose information has been posted online and ask them whether they agree to its being stored there, he said.
Thilo Weichert, data protection commissioner in the northern German state of Schleswig Holstein, said in a telephone interview that Facebook’s assertion that it gets necessary consent for the posting of personal information is “total nonsense.”
“We’ve written to Facebook and told them they’re not abiding by the law in Europe,” he said.
The probes by the German and Swiss privacy watchdogs are still preliminary and would not have immediate consequences elsewhere.
However, Weichert said the issue is being discussed with other data protection officials in the 27-nation EU, which in 2000 declared privacy a fundamental right that companies and governments must respect.
The European stance differs strongly from the self-regulatory, free market approach favored in the US, Columbia University law professor Eben Moglen said.
“If the European regulators get serious, it will create a significant conflict,” said Moglen, who has been examining online privacy issues since the early days of the Web.
Richard Allan, director of policy for Facebook Europe, said some of the functions being scrutinized — such as those allowing users to upload their friends’ e-mail addresses to find them online — were common across the industry. The company has recently added a tool for nonusers to have their data removed, he said.
“As a global company what we’re trying to do is to make sure that our systems meet the requirements of all the jurisdictions in which we operate,” Allan said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS