The German government is officially crazy when it comes to online privacy issues.

I don't understand. No one is forcing them to 'like' anything, so where is the privacy infringement. It seems to me that when a person clicks on a 'like' button they are consciously and actively participating in the communication of the fact that they have preferences. They mentioned data protection. Abstaining from clicking the button is protection enough, right?

This makes me happy actually. It goes to show that the US doesn't have a monopoly on politicians that have no understanding of the things they pass laws about.

But the facebook like button is just an iframe...Will it mean that it will be ilegal to frame images/texts? How about other services where you use different types of digital keys. How about Google+....Interesting questions...

Hmm! Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.  It is not a law or anything like it. It is simply a new policy for Federal agencies. It will only apply to federal government websites. The reason they do not want the like button on their websites is because if Facebook can track what users are visiting federal government websites, it violates Gernamy's own privacy laws. They have very strick privacy laws in Germany. The US lost this a long time ago and likely will never have any real privacy protection laws like Germany's in the foreseeable future if ever. Bad luck for US citizens.

Thanks Peter for clearing this article up.

The German privacy advocates may better remember life under the Gestapo and Stazi than people in the United States who think it's all much ado about nothing.  Their feelings are very real and we should respect that.