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24 year old student lights match: Europe versus Facebook

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Re: 24 year old student lights match: Europe versus Facebook

#2
Honest question: Why is Facebook governed, at least in part, by European law? The reason I ask is that the United States has a lot of trouble enforcing its copyright laws abroad (which is good in my opinion), but Facebook and Google seem to bend to European laws regarding privacy and transparency.

Re: 24 year old student lights match: Europe versus Facebook

#3
post #2

Honest question: Why is Facebook governed, at least in part, by European law? The reason I ask is that the United States has a lot of trouble enforcing its copyright laws abroad (which is good in my opinion), but Facebook and Google seem to bend to European laws regarding privacy and transparency.

I think its to do with Irish tax laws being more favorable to large international companies

EDIT see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_Arrangement

Re: 24 year old student lights match: Europe versus Facebook

#4
post #2

Honest question: Why is Facebook governed, at least in part, by European law? The reason I ask is that the United States has a lot of trouble enforcing its copyright laws abroad (which is good in my opinion), but Facebook and Google seem to bend to European laws regarding privacy and transparency.

The answer in a nutshell is that they have servers and offices in Europe.

Re: 24 year old student lights match: Europe versus Facebook

#5
post #2

Honest question: Why is Facebook governed, at least in part, by European law? The reason I ask is that the United States has a lot of trouble enforcing its copyright laws abroad (which is good in my opinion), but Facebook and Google seem to bend to European laws regarding privacy and transparency.

It's to do with whether a company has a 'physical presence' in a country. Facebook has a large presence in Ireland as a company, and Ireland is part of Europe.

It's less to do with a country enforcing it's laws abroad, and more to do with companies setting up a physical presence in a country.

Re: 24 year old student lights match: Europe versus Facebook

#9
post #2

Honest question: Why is Facebook governed, at least in part, by European law? The reason I ask is that the United States has a lot of trouble enforcing its copyright laws abroad (which is good in my opinion), but Facebook and Google seem to bend to European laws regarding privacy and transparency.

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!

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