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German data protection officials have accused Facebook of illegally compiling a photo database of users without their consent.
Facebook said in a statement that it was not breaking E.U law with its facial recognition software, which prompts users to ‘tag’ or identify people in photos uploaded to the site.
The social networking site maintains that the practice is legal in Ireland, where Facebook’s European operation is incorporated.
Users can prevent friends from seeing tag suggestions but this requires opting out through Facebook privacy settings. German officials claim this is a violation of European law.
Although Facebook insists that it isn’t violating any laws, it has agreed to suspend the tagging feature for Europeans who joined Facebook on or after July 1st.
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