Facebook’s tag suggest feature and use of facial-recognition technology is moving in different directions on opposite sides of the globe, as the social network reintroduced the feature in the U.S. last week, while at the same time deleting all facial-recognition data in Europe, where tag suggest has been disabled since last October.
Lisa Raphael (left), the social media producer at Katie Couric's daytime talk show Katie, is one of our featured speakers in Mediabistro's upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp, an online event and workshop starting June 6, 2013. Lisa will share a case study on how the hit show uses Twitter to build interest and buzz around upcoming segments. Learn more about our our twelve event speakers and register here. 
Facebook appeared to have settled concerns within the European Union over its use of facial-recognition technology with Friday’s announcement of an agreement between the social network and Ireland’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, but the memo apparently never made it to Hamburg, Germany.
Folks in Germany’s second largest city are bracing themselves for a major drunkfest orchestrated via Facebook, that will take place this September on the metro system, a day before the official alcohol ban on the trains go into effect.
Back in August of 2008 we covered news regarding Facebook attempting to acquire the German competitor Studiverzeichnis before suing the company for being a “knock off.” A couple years later, it appears as though Facebook is in the process of surpassing StudiVZ (if it hasn’t already) and is now opening up an office in Hamburg. Also the investor who purchased StudiVZ has been actively investing in Facebook app developers, in an attempt to diversify their risk.
