U.S. companies need to realize that they must follow the laws of the countries that they operate in. Facebook, Google, etc... appear not to understand the proverb, "when in Rome do as the Romans do" should mean that when doing business around the world they must abide by the data protection and privacy laws of the countries where they offer their services.
The Higher Court of Berlin recently confirmed a 2012 verdict that found that Facebook’s Friend Finder violated German law because it was unclear to users that they imported their entire address book into the social network when using it. The court further confirmed that Facebook’s privacy policy and terms of service violate German law.
Facebook and Google appear to believe that EU data protection laws should not apply to them. Both of these companies have been sued multiple times and paid fines and/or entered into judicial settlements in the tens of millions of dollars for privacy violations. Unfortunately, these fines are pocket change to them. Should our personal privacy and cyber-safety be protected and valued in the same way as consumer anti-trust protections?
Copyright 2014 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.
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