A German data protection supervisor has asked Facebook ^[1] to disable its new photo-tagging feature, warning that it could violate privacy laws.

Johannes Caspar of Hamburg, said he was concerned the feature collected data on Facebook users without permission in violation of European laws. He wrote a letter to the company asking it to respond within two weeks. Facebook could face a fine of up to 300,000 euros ($429,000) under German law.

Facebook’s new tagging feature ^[2], called “suggested automatic tagging,” lets users give digital name tags to people in photos. When new photos are uploaded, the software scans them for physical features and automatically tags them.

A spokesperson for Facebook in Berlin told The New York Times ^[3] the tagging software is within European privacy law.

“We will consider the points the Hamburg Data Protection Authority have made about the photo tag suggest feature but firmly reject any claim that we are not meeting our obligations under European Union data protection law,” the spokesperson said.

Read more at The New York Times ^[3].