Data protection watchdogs go after Facebook

data protection watchdogs, who are preparing legal action against it, The Inquirer reports.

This is not the first time Germany and Facebook have tangled; at issue now is the social network's use of facial recognition technology and the way it recognises people and suggests them for tagging in other member's photo albums without telling them that they are the subjects of its investigations.

As a compromise, Facebook proposed the introduction of a checkbox for users to accept terms and conditions and guidelines on data usage, but the Data Protection Authority (DPA) feels that such a solution is not enough to legitimise the collection and use of biometric facial characteristics, PCWorld says.

Furthermore, this checkbox would only be available to new users, which means people who are already signed up will not be asked for their consent. Johannes Caspar, the Hamburg commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, described the results of months of talks with the social networking company as disappointing.

According to Deutsche Welle, the organisation went on to say that, in previous conversations, Facebook said it would explicitly inform users of this feature, but instead that it went ahead anyway. In August, the Hamburg authority publicly complained about Facebook's behaviour and said it was in talks with the company.