Facebook said on Monday that it reached an agreement with German officials responsible for ensuring the protection of privacy, after a dispute over unsolicited invitations sent to the system who are not members of the network. The application “Friend Finder” or “Friend Finder” which allows Facebook to send invitations by email to users via the mailing list of its members, has been widely criticized in Germany for violating laws respecting the privacy by allowing unauthorized access to information of third parties.
The data protection authority, based in Hamburg, said Monday it reached an agreement with the network on a 14-point plan that will allow its members to have more control over e-mail addresses you want to share with the site mail.
Johannes Caspar, the data protection official in Hamburg who negotiated the agreement on behalf of the German users, said the changes are intended to protect members who are not free and whose information was being used without their consent, for purposes that were further connect with their friends.
“The use of email addresses by third parties is possible only under certain regulations and only to find friends. That was the strongest case in dispute,” said Gaspar. “Facebook agreed to no longer use these addresses for something that has nothing to do with finding friends,” he added.
Facebook said in a statement that it welcomed the agreement but declined to give further information. ”We are pleased to have reached a settlement with the Data Protection Authority of Hamburg on the concerns they had regarding the form of friends and we continue our constructive discussions and dialogue in the future,” the company said.