Robert Rothmann, author of the study and currently a visiting researcher at the Institute for Information, Health and Medical Law (IGMR) of the University of Bremen, questioned 1,019 active facebook users in an online survey. At the core of the study, the participants were presented with a number of particularly striking clauses from the facebook terms of use. They were asked if they knew what they had consented to and whether they would do so again – if they were given the choice.
In addition to the obligation to provide one’s full name and waive the right to delete shared information, further consent is requested. Such as the unpaid use of name and profile picture for upgrading marketing efforts as well as the processing of personal information for use in studies and product development. Participants in the survey were also asked whether they knew that their personal data is passed on to the US. The terms of use also include consent to authorities having access to their data.
Unawareness and indignation
The survey revealed that 99 percent of respondents did not know that they had agreed to all these abovementioned conditions. If they had the choice, now only three percent would agree to all the clauses. Subsequent in-depth qualitative analyzes made it clear that when confronted with details of what they had given their consent to, most people react with criticism and indignation.
“The results show that the voluntary use of Facebook cannot be equated with actually having consented to the coupled processing of a user’s data,” explains the author of the study Robert Rothmann. Simply using facebook does mean having given blanket consent to all contractual contents and subsequent data processing. The representative data show that the vast majority of people who use facebook do so without having given their informed consent.
Erosion of privacy
The opinion of facebook, but also that of many lawyers, stands in stark contrast to the empirical findings: They interpret the act of registration as formally validating a contract with binding consent. Consumers who sign up for a social media service based on extensive “general terms and conditions of business” are simply assumed also to be in agreement with any subsequent activities and processing of their data. However, that the average consumer is aware of such extensive terms and conditions is economically irrational – quite apart from the fact that it is practically impossible for legal laypersons to understand them. The assumed consent thus proves to be a fiction. This protects the corporations and gives consumers an improper advantage under data protection law in the digital mass market. “We can speak of a contractually-based erosion of privacy, which completely derails central data protection values,” sums up Robert Rothmann.
If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:
Robert Rothmann
University of Bremen
Faculty of Law
Institute for Information, Health and Medical Law
Phone: +49 421 218-99734
email: robert.rothmannprotect me ?!univie.acprotect me ?!.at
Prof.Dr. Benedikt Buchner
University of Bremen
Faculty of Law
Institute for Information, Health and Medical Law
Phone: +49 421 218-66040
email: bbuchnerprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
