Germany's Federal Cartel Office Claims Facebook 'Extorts' Personal Data From Users (independent.co.uk)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Independent: Germany's Federal Cartel Office is examining whether Facebook essentially takes advantage of its popularity to bully users into agreeing to terms and conditions they might not understand. The details that users provide help generate the targeted ads that make the company so rich. In the eyes of the Cartel Office, Facebook is "extorting" information from its users, said Frederik Wiemer, a lawyer at Heuking Kuhn Lueer Wojtek in Hamburg. "Whoever doesn't agree to the data use, gets locked out of the social network community," he said. "The fear of social isolation is exploited to get access to the complete surfing activities of users." Andreas Mundt, the Cartel Office's president, said last week he's "eager to present first results" of the Facebook investigation this year. Like the EU's Google investigation, he said the Facebook case tackles "central questions ensuring competition in the digital world in the future".

Comments

The new German economic model

[knorthern knight]

1) Pass wierd legislation authorizing huge fines for whatever
2) Levy huge fines against American companies
3) Profit!

Simple solution

[Alain Williams]

Just don't sign up; find real friends in the real world -- rather than a thousand people who you think are friends because they know what you had for breakfast.