A retailer using Facebook's "like" button faces a court ruling against it for inadequate user consent before transmitting user data to Facebook.

I'm sure most people don't realise that the "Like" button is very valuable from a data perspective. This court ruling may have further connotations as it plays out, and may eventually mean some other user function or acceptance is required for the social media data harvesting.

The court found in favor of the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Association, which had complained that Peek & Cloppenburg's Fashion ID website had grabbed user data and sent it to Facebook before shoppers had decided whether to click on the "like" button or not. German Judge Rules Facebook "Like" Button Sent User Data Without Consent [reuters.com]

A Facebook representative said...

"The Like button, like many other features that are used to enhance websites, is an accepted, legal and important part of the Internet, and this ruling does not change that."