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What makes you, well, you? That’s the kind of question that can keep big-brained philosophers pondering for decades. We’re no Nietzsches here at Maximum PC, so we’ll just report on the facts, thank you very much – and the facts says Facebook thinks part of you actually belongs to them. Well, kind of. Facebook refused to turn over a complete log of the personal data the social network had collected about an activist group’s founder over the years, because apparently, the company considers some of your personal data – such as “Like” history – to be their “trade secrets or intellectual property.”
Not to say that Facebook was stingy with Max Schrem’s request. They gave a CD containing 800 pages worth of data to the “Europe vs. Facebook” founder when he asked for it, TechDirt reports. But when Schrem realized some tidbits were absent – such as “Like” shares, postings on other users walls, and more – he asked for the rest of the data, and Facebook started throwing Irish law in his face (Facebook’s HQ is in Ireland).
Section 4(12) of the Acts carves out an exception to subject access requests where the disclosures in response would adversely affect trade secrets or intellectual property. We have not provided any information to you which is a trade secret or intellectual property of Facebook Ireland Limited or its licensors.
That’s right – Facebook considers your personal data its intellectual property and trade secrets, even though European law saws any European citizen can request a full log of his or her personal data from any service. To be fair, we can see why a person’s Likes could be marketable material, but is it right to keep the information from the user himself? Facebook also said some of the data couldn’t be shared because it could “only be furnished after disproportionate effort.”
If you’re wondering what kind of data Facebook keeps on you and is actually willing to share, the Europe vs. Facebook website details every group of data it received in response to an information request.
Comments are closed on this article
Device Unknown
October 12, 2011 at 4:04pm
I'm sick of hearing people bitch about Facebook and your privacy. If you dont like all of your information harvested and available to everyone, by God STOP USING FACEBOOK. This isnt frikin rocket science!
If you use Facebook, shut up and deal with it.
If you don't like their practices, delete your account, but expect all the information you DID have on their to be cataloged and saved for years. But atleast the catalog won't get any bigger.
I have a Facebook Account. Has my real name, thats it. I think I logged into it like 5 months ago. Could care less.
Eoraptor
November 21, 2011 at 6:20pm
What about those of us who have never had, nor never WILL have a facebook. That does NOT mean we are not also being tracked and marketed at too. You'd be shocked how often Abine pops up and reports to me "users have reported this site works better if you unblock facebook" (including this very site)
I had a myspace page once for about 6 months, and have never had a facebook page, but you can bet that, before I started actively deleting their content from webpages with a security program, that they "owned" a lot of my private data too.
AntonioGarrison
October 12, 2011 at 1:06pm
Private firms who collect Information on you know more about you than the government.
Sad but true, but to the point it doesn't suprise me that they say some of this is their property. You're using a free service and going around posting information about yourself on another persons page. Also majority of your "likes" are either hobbies or products you've bought or would like to own, which is great information in large quanities to a company.
I wonder if you deleted your account, how long it would take them to delete ALL the information provided by you of yourself? Would they keep all the "intellectual property" they have earned from you and delete all the uselss links to other people and posts or will they delete ALL of it?
In todays age we have no privacy, you can be tracked down by your cellphone, your normal websites you visit, logging into your accounts on any website. All this information is shared. Remember that thing your parents used to tell you "Nothing is ever free, there's always a catch".
Morete
October 12, 2011 at 12:22pm
Ah, corporations need their chops busted once in a while. It keeps 'em on their toes.
chipmunkofdoom2
October 12, 2011 at 11:41am
Not sure why everyone is so shocked at the privacy issues of social networks. You are putting information onto another person's server, for all the world to see, at no cost. There should never have been any expectation of privacy, governance or self-ownership of that information.. nor should there ever be.
