EU court ruled that the website using the Facebook Like button is responsible for user data

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that websites hosting the Facebook Like button may be responsible for transferring data to Facebook. Although the court stated that the third-party website cannot be responsible for the data processing performed by Facebook after the data transmission, it is absolutely the responsibility to facilitate the collection and transmission of data through the Like button.

“Like”by Naroh is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The German consumer association Verbraucherzentrale NRW sued the German clothing retailer, Fashion ID and sued its lack of data protection through the Facebook Like button on its website. After the German court requested guidance on the lawsuit, the European Court of Justice reported its decision.

In a statement about the matter, the court said that in this case, when the website operator Fashion ID gets content from the user, they must let them know that it is collecting data and transmitting it to Facebook. In addition, the court stated that “the operators of the website and the providers of social plug-ins must pursue legitimate interests by collecting and transmitting personal data, and at the same time prove that these operations are reasonable in this regard.”

The court’s ruling is a huge victory for end users who want to keep their privacy in front of large technology companies like Facebook.

Via: theverge