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Ask HN: Why does Facebook put itself under EU Data Protection Law?

2 points by rmc ↗ HN
Just something I was wondering about, I'm (obviously) not looking for legal advice or insights into the inner workings of Facebook

When you're signing up to a Facebook account, the terms of use ( http://www.facebook.com/legal/terms ) state, in §18(1), that:

> If you are a resident of or have your principal place of business in the US or Canada, this Statement is an agreement between you and Facebook, Inc. Otherwise, this Statement is an agreement between you and Facebook Ireland Limited. References to “us,” “we,” and “our” mean either Facebook, Inc. or Facebook Ireland Limited, as appropriate.

So if you're in the USA or Canada, you've a contract with a US company, else, you have a contract with an Irish company, that then has to work under EU Data Protection Laws.

But why would Facebook do this? Why not just tell everyone that they have a contract with the US company, and then you don't have to be audited by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (as they recently were). Why would they put themselves through that?

(And yes, the corporate tax rate in Ireland is 12½%, but that doesn't mean that end users need to have a contract with Facebook Ireland Ltd.)

1 comment

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jnorthrop
Facebook has operations in Ireland. As such they are subject to the EU Data Directive[1] which gives much more control over the personal data Facebook holds to the data subject (the user). Two things have happened to Facebook recently:

1. They were sued by the FTC[2] 2. And a person, turned to a group, has been making data subject requests to Facebook causing them some trouble[3]

All of these things lead to Facebook protecting itself legally with statements in their terms of use. At the end of the day it is not that you are contracting with an Irish company but globally Ireland's laws (EU Data Directive) gives you the most rights, so they are pointing that out to you.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Directive

[2] http://www.bgr.com/2011/11/29/facebook-settles-privacy-suit-...

[3] http://europe-v-facebook.org/EN/Objectives/objectives.html