‘FB oversharing user data’

FRANKFURT AM MAIN: A German court has found Facebook is breaching data protection rules with privacy settings that over-share by default and by requiring users to give real names, a consumer rights organisation said on Monday.

Under German law, personal information can only be recorded and used by a company with explicit agreement from the individual. But Berlin judges ruled Facebook leaves many settings switched on by default, failing to offer users a meaningful choice about how their data is used, plaintiffs the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV) said.

"Facebook hides default settings that are not privacy-friendly in its privacy centre and does not provide sufficient information about this when users register," VZBV legal expert Heiko Duenkel said.