[beforebeta]

The linked video (in german) explains this. Apparently Facebook has a registered HQ in Ireland (presumably - as someone mentioned in another thread - for tax purposes). Since it is a registered business in Ireland, it is subject to all Irish and many applicable European laws (one of which is data privacy). The 24-year-old Individual feels it's against his data privacy rights that Facebook retains deleted messages.

Personally I find his arguments a bit flawed - e.g. in one instance apparently he objects to the fact that Facebook knows when he was ill because he can do a quick CTRL-F on the text "ill" (german: krank) in the text he received from Facebook. My question is - isn't he the one who posted that content in the first place?

Secondly, he complains that deleted messages are still retained by Facebook. Could that just be a referential integrity constraint - since most messages require 2 or more parties. Therefore, although he deletes the messages, the other party still has the message in their inbox. Therefore, Facebook cannot simply delete the message. Furthermore, since the message has him linked, even if he deletes it from his side, Facebook needs to retain that information on their side.

You know the best solution to protect yourself from Facebook's data privacy policies - get off Facebook or at least be cautious when you post! I personally love the service and think one should be smart about what they post on publicly accessible social networks since that data remains for eternity!

[d0mine]

People say if you don't want facebook to know anything about you, then you shouldn't post there. So others reply that it doesn't matter that you didn't give the data to facebook, one of your friends might.

So now the statement is that if you don't want facebook to know anything about you, then you shouldn't tell your friends, colleagues, etc. anything - after all, they may enter it on facebook.

</quote> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2481922&cid=37750358

If you visit pages that might contain Like button then facebook will know about you even without your acquaintances.

[vijayr]

Could that just be a referential integrity constraint - since most messages require 2 or more parties.

Can't they just update the content of the message (on both sides) as "deleted", but keep the record itself? It would annoy the other party though.

This would be really annoying, when it comes to chat logs.

[dantheman]

Watch all the tech companies leave Ireland due draconian European laws.

I don't understand, why all law must be proactive. Let people try and experiment, let norms evolve. Why must we prelegislate things, wait until facebook or someone else starts doing horrible things before passing a law.

[rickmb]

Companies and governments already did horrible things in the past few decades. That's why the laws are there. Basically the same reasons why the US has the right to bare arms.

You may want to read up on your history before you call European laws to protect the privacy, freedom and very lives of it's own citizens "draconian".

They are only draconian if you believe the rights of corporations trump those of the people. Which is basically what the US has been doing for quite a while now, not really an example other countries care to follow.

[0x12]

Tough choice. Pay tax or better consumer laws.