Banning Like

From VentureBeat:

The German government on Friday declared the Facebook "Like" button, which appears on countless websites accessible all over the world, in violation of the country's strict privacy rights — and thus illegal.

An official from the German state of Schleswig-Holstein's data protection center, Thilo Weichert, said the privacy violation stems from the Like button's ability to track a person's movement across the web, according to a report by The Local.

In addition to violating German laws, Weichert claims the Facebook Like button also breaks European Union data protection laws. However, Facebook has rejected those claims and said any data that's stored (like web activity from a unique IP address) is deleted after the industry standard 90-days, according to the report. VentureBeat has contacted the company for further comment.

It's this bit:

"the Facebook Like button also breaks European Union data protection laws"

that is of most concern. We'll keep an eye on this one and let you know of any developments, although it probably doesn't have a cat-in-hell's chance of changing anything. See that "Like" button at the top of this page? Go on, click it.

(ht @laura_scott)