Facebook Could Face Increased Pressure in Germany, Experts Say

On Sunday, Andreas Voßkuhle, president of the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, made a splash nationwide when he told the German magazine, Focus, that using Facebook is “risky.”

Voßkuhle added that the high court may soon be forced to consider whether Facebook’s services are compatible with Germany’s right to informational self-determination, Deutsche Welle reports.

The warning comes on the heels of an audit issued last week by Johannes Caspar, head of the data protection authority in the state of Hamburg, who said that Facebook has no justification for adding user-tracking cookies to browsers – even for those without Facebook accounts.

But efforts to reform German law or bring the issue to court could take years, experts say.

Since Facebook has no servers in Germany, German authorities have little ability to do something about possible violations of national data protection laws.

Dominik Boecker, an information technology lawyer with his own practice in Cologne, thinks the issue is “likely” to come before German courts, although it could be four or five years before a case reaches the Federal Constitutional Court.

The data protection delegation may issue an administrative decision telling Facebook to stop saving data, which could bring the question of whether or not this is legal under German law.

Under German consumer law, an Internet user could sue companies with a like button for allowing Facebook to save data or install cookies in his or her browser.

But Boecker thinks this is unlikely, as individual users have little interest in pursuing such a costly and time-consuming lawsuit against what essentially amounts to a third party.

Broecker thinks the best way to resolve the issue would be for the laws to be amended – something that is in the works.