German Sites With A Facebook Like Button May Be Illegal

A court in Germany has ruled that an ecommerce site's use of the Facebook “like” button violates the country's strict data protection laws. The ecommerce site Peek & Cloppenburg had been sending users' web browsing data to Facebook when they clicked the Facebook “like” button on their website. The court ruled that this was illegal because it didn't ask for the users' consent or make it clear that clicking “like” would send over their browsing data. Peek & Cloppenburg may now have to pay a fine of up to a quarter of a million Euros. Five other websites have also been warned to change their websites to make it clear to users that clicking “like” will send Facebook their browsing data, or risk being fined. German internet users are extremely privacy-aware, and the country has some of the strictest data protection laws in the world. 
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