The ruling spawned from an incident with a woman who had her Facebook account blocked for using a fake name.
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Security watchdogs in Germany have said that Facebook is prohibited from preventing people to use aliases and forcing them to stick to their real names. She had opted to use a pseudonym to avoided unwanted contact from business associates, but Facebook demanded to see ID and changed her username accordingly.
The decision only marks the latest setback for Facebook in Europe, where a Belgian privacy watchdog took the website to court just last month over the manner it tracks users’ activities. Authorities from Germany, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, and France are now all working together to investigate Facebook’s privacy policies.
In an audit in December 2011 the Irish privacy watchdog concluded that Facebook’s authentic name policy did not contravene Irish law and its reasons for the policy, such as child safety and the prevention of online harassment, were justified. For a few time the social network has required its users to reveal their real name rather than allowing for the adoption of pseudonyms.
Facebook said it was disappointed with the order and that German courts had reviewed it on many occasions and deemed it compliant with EU law.
Facebook had argued that it was subject to Ireland’s data laws, since the company’s European headquarters is there. The Hamburg data protection authority has obviously rejected that stance ad hoc, but don’t be surprised if Facebook challenges this one.
The Hamburg Data Protection Authority said she didn’t wish to choose her true name to…
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Facebook has defended its rule of using real names on the social networking site. Chime in here, and we’ll share the results.
