Facebook: 'No merit' to claim we broke German privacy law

Re: How would they know?

"In the end though, Zuckerberg and his lawyers can, and probably will, say that Facebook is voluntary, and if you don't like the rules, get out of hte social medium. And he does have a point."

Perhaps it's just wishful thinking that he does say that, and that everyone takes him up on the offer?

Anyway, G+ has the same problem. That and the desperate attempts to make it so you need a G+ account in order to fart, is a real reason to hit Google. Not this shit with newspapers and linking to search engines.

Re: How would they know?

Just because use of something online is 'voluntary' does not mean it can break the law.

Use of various child abuse websites are voluntary and yet I doubt many would argue it should be a case of "If you dont like it dont use it"...

Re: How would they know?

Good luck trying to take your account down as you try to leave...

"The Immortal Khan"... was actually called Smith

Well, kind-of. The actual name of the person who took the title "Chinggis Khan" was Temujin, which means "ironworker".

I guess that *does* make it a bit of a giveaway.

Re: How would they know?

Yes but you still have to follow the law if the land.

Do you think you would get away with nudity on a beach in Saudi because it happens to be legal on a beach in Germany?

Is it ok to gamble on the Internet while living in New York when the site is hosted in the UK?

What do you mean by "maintain documentation of your real name"?

What do you mean by "real name", for that matter?

As far as I know there is no law in the UK saying you can't call yourself whatever you like. However, there is also no "right" to call yourself what you like so you can't expect the passport office and other government departments to be particularly cooperative. Since there is no standard identity card it's quite easy to end up with different names on your passport, bank account, etc, but it causes plenty of practical difficulties if you overuse that option.

If the government can't solve the problem the work-around would be for everyone to have the same official name, Sam Smith, say, and use that name in all their dealings with bureaucrats while using something more distinctive in their social and business dealings. Eventually the government would produce forms with a field labelled "Name (if not Sam Smith)" ...

> Under UK law you are allowed to go by a pseudonym, as long as you maintain documentation of your real name.

As I understand it, legally it is (or was) the other way around. The name that you are known by is your "real" name. Changing your name by deed poll is a recognition that you are already known by that name, and allows you to update your official documentation.

fail ...

in the UK you can do whatever you like, unless it's prohibited in law. More people should think that way. Don't ask "am I allowed" ask "am I prevented".

It's a subtle, but crucial difference ....

So your passport says 'chronigan' does it?

Perhaps as you don't want to use your real name you think you shouldn't post comments on el reg either.

Fool.

Re: Real names are pretty irrelevant ...

Well, if they gave a toss about who you know, and who knows you, then they would embrace aliases and nicknames. Plenty of people I know online are better (and often exclusively) known by their alias; and would be close to anonymous under their real name (and therefore nearly worthless as marketing data).

Then there the funny bit about what actually constitutes real names; I know quite a few whose official name was deemed fake by G+ and/or farcebook. And that's not even taking into account that names are apparently only acceptable if they conform to US standard; registration forms can't deal with prefixes (like 'von der'), double surnames (quite common in Spain) and short surnames like Ng almost universally are flagged fake too.

Re: IANAL, but

IANAL either, but I'm pretty sure your birth certificate remains unaltered, except in very rare cases, regardless of the route you take to change your present name.