Word: aigner
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Facebook is in the business of connecting people all over the world, but the social-networking giant is on the verge of losing one of its most influential friends in Germany - the Minister of Consumer Protection - because of a disagreement over the site's privacy regulations. Ilse Aigner effectively declared war on Facebook on April 5 when she wrote a provocative, open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, the website's 25-year-old founder. "I was astonished to discover that, despite the concerns of users and severe criticism from consumer activists, Facebook would like to relax data protection regulations...
...What could turn a self-confessed social-networking addict so virulently against Facebook? Last month, the website announced a planned test to start sharing users' personal details with handpicked third-party websites to help those sites better personalize their services to people. Aigner complains that Facebook users won't necessarily be notified when this happens and the onus will be on them to use the opt-out function to stop their personal details from being passed on. And that, she says, leaves many people, especially youngsters, in a vulnerable position, since they may not be aware that their personal data...
...Policy does not relate to the wholesale sharing of user data for commercial purposes as the minister fears," the company said in a statement, "but to a very limited proposal to work with some pre-approved partner websites." Facebook's European policy director, Richard Allan, has offered to meet Aigner to discuss the matter, but her spokesman says she still has "serious concerns...
...Facebook's tussle with the German government is music to the ears of its rivals in Germany. The country's biggest social-networking company, VZ-Networks, says it welcomes Aigner's initiative against Facebook. "It's remarkable she chose to voice her complaints by writing a public letter and by threatening to cancel her Facebook account," Clemens Riedl, chief executive of VZ-Networks, tells TIME. "By doing this, she demonstrates that the German government has no legal means to control U.S. Internet companies operating in Germany." As if acknowledging this itself, the ministry pointed out last week that rival German...
...there's an uneasy truce between the two sides. Aigner has set up a group on Facebook to discuss the data-protection issue - and 5,000 members have signed up to date. She has also doubled the number of friends on her personal profile, according to her spokesman. It seems the minister can't kick the Facebook habit just...