Data official attacks real name Facebook policy
Published: 20 Dec 12 12:27 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20121220-46889.html
German data protection advocate Thilo Weichert has launched an offensive on Facebook's core "real name" policy, demanding that users should be allowed anonymous profiles.
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If the Irish subsidy company responsible for European Facebook profiles fails to comply, the network would be hit with a €20,000 fine. Demanding real names was, Weichert said, an “unacceptable” violation of the country's teleservices law.
A €20,000 payout might not be much for a company with a 2011 revenue of over $3.7 billion, but Facebook seems to have registered Weichert's request and on Thursday hit back, saying that their "real name policy" was an integral part of making the network safe.
"We think that the decree is unfounded and a waste of German tax money," a Facebook spokesman said. “Using true identities brings about a feeling of safety from which our users benefit.”
But Weichert disagreed, telling daily newspaper Die Welt, "The reasons that Facebook gives for demanding real names are a pretext." He said Facebook actually needs the real identities to make more money from advertising.
"I expect that if we are successful, other countries in Europe will follow suit," he told the paper.
This was not Weichert first attack on the social network's business model – last year he launched an offensive against the site's “Like” button, asking for it to be removed for certain users in Schleswig-Holstein.
DPA/The Local/jcw
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Your comments about this article:
Shame that 20k is supposed to be a huge fine for everybody, like Baron cut and paste who paid 20k (or 0.003% of his networth) to stop an investigation. And 20k if you make billions is just laughable.
I would just fly to Mr Weichert in my fleet of private jets and throw it at his feet (because throwing it in his face is probably assault or some crap) then shake my junk in his general direction and laugh all the while. Also, I would film it and put it on youtube. And put out a PR statement that we are so deeply sorry if the data protection guy took the TOS the wrong way.
Not a FB fan btw.
Too bad we don't have bigger bills than 500€. Or you could just hand him a 50k bill and tell him to keep the change. *looks up what gold Krugerrands go for right now*
People in my opinion put way to much personnel info out there, don't forget this will remain out there for years, your profile may be viewed by future employers, school officials ,as well as identity thieves, spammers, and stalkers.People think because there is no physical interaction,that there is some anonymity, and security.Mostly we tailor this info for friends and family often forgetting just about anyone can read it.
I am no fan of facebook, although I maintain a phony ID and profile just to save time signing into many web sites.I get very few friend request.
Sharing info can be problematic ,it can reveal something about you that you¦#39;d rather your current or future employer or school administrator not know, and second, it can put your personal safety and the safety of your family at risk.
FB should shut down all German IP's or what ever they have and then let the people decide if Weichert is correct or as I suspect, just self important.............
If you don't want to use your own name on a social network site like FB and can't think your way around it don't join.
It's social network site not a nanny center for insecure identity crisis management. If you join the social media army and its mega market environment expect to be shot at.
You are right and people should be terrified. The best is that former StaSi head Markus Wolf, head of the GDR`s foreign intelligence service, (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung), was employed for 3 years as an adviser to Homeland Security, so you can imagine what is coming in the U.S.. Think about that. What kind of Bizarro World are we living in when something like that can happen without so much as a headline in the MSM in the U.S. or in Germany?
From the article linked below, American Stasi:
"The captured Stasi files on East Germans are 65 miles long, excluding 16,000 sacks of shredded documents that are being reconstructed. The American Stasi's files will be, for all practical purposes, infinite, because of the advances in technology and information storage."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/128662.html
The Lives of Others?