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Comment by drzaiusapelord | Hacker News Reader

Little? Germany is one of the world's massive economies.

Whats cute is Americans who think regulating business is something we should never do and privacy laws are bullshit. Sorry, but it looks like the rest of the world isn't so lassiz-faire.

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Not all privacy laws are bullshit...but this one sure seems to be. The "Like" button (and the "1+" button, and the buttons to submit to Reddit, HN, and the like, which would all be covered) are completely optional for the visitor to the site. They don't have to click them unless they want to.

The same argument they are using against these buttons applies to off-site hyperlinks in general. Are those going to be banned in the name of privacy?

The "Like" button is not a hyperlink. A hyperlink doesn't reveal your identity to the target site unless you click on it - the Like button will ping Facebook about your presence even if you don't click.

So yes, there are major legitimate privacy concerns about this. I'd hope you weren't aware of this, otherwise this would be an incredibly disingenuous argument to make.

I thought the same in my previous comment, but after a bit of searching, the Like button is not optional at all.

It is capable of tracking both logged-in Facebook users and even users that don't have a Facebook account. It sets a cookie without you clicking it.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1717563

  Scenario: The web user does not have a Facebook account  
  ...
  after visiting a web site on which Facebook Connect has 
  been implemented, the request for the Like button 
  includes a cookie. This cookie has an expiration date two 
  years from the moment it was issued. However, by browsing 
  across web sites, additional cookies can be placed on the 
  user's computer and these can be added later on in new 
  requests.

OK, I see that it is not equivalent to a link, because it loads stuff even if you don't click it.

However, is it any worse than an off-site image, or an off-site JavaScript? Those both contact a third-party server. For instance, if I use MathJax on my site, downloaded via a script tag that points to cdn.mathjax.org, would I get in trouble in Europe?

Little as in its size and population, as well as how no one cares what Germany does with their Internet (except for Germans, of course). What's really cute is how people whine about privacy but use the Web. Two things that clash entirely at a fundamental level (the client-server model).

Privacy laws are actually mainly EU wide, which represents more than 300 millions people. Now you could say the US is little compared to China and India, but does it bring much value to the discussion?

EU population is actually over 500 million

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union

So my statement is still valid ;) Thanks for the correction! Think I mixed up things in my memory with the Eurozone, should have checked it.

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