[Privvy]

There is something legally wrong in multiple EU member states: Collecting biometric data without user consent was ruled illegal.

> Facebook has introduced this [facial recognition] function in Europe without informing users and acquiring the necessary consent. Unambiguous consent from those affected is required by the European as well as the German data protection law.

> For users whose biometric facial characteristics have already been incorporated into the database operated by Facebook, this consent needs to be acquired retrospectively.

> The preliminaries for legal action are now being prepared,

-- The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, 2011.

As for the current bandwagon of hate, this is basic news cycle stuff, and it would be hard to single out anyone. In my opinion, Facebook deserves this extra negative scrutiny, and has to make up for this lost trust with better privacy controls and privacy-friendly PR pushes. This latest breach of the EU data protection laws is not helping users and public perception (but probably helps Facebook gather data while it can).