German police use Facebook pictures to nab crooks

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BERLIN (Reuters) - Police in the German state of Lower-Saxony will soon use their networks of Facebook "friends" to find missing persons and hunt out suspected criminals, according to the state's interior minister.

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[FluffyMcDeath]

And people voluntarily tag pictures of themselves and their friends online.

 

[Glaucus]

This bit confuses me:

The new system, which will be introduced in the near future, will direct Facebook users to a police server via an internet link, said Schuenemann.
But the state commissioner for data protection, Joachim Wahlbrink, said this was not enough and the decision would lead to the circulation of the personal information on the internet which can never be completely deleted.
"Once this data has been saved, those involved will always be pilloried," his spokesman, Michael Knaps, said.

Which data and on who's servers?

Also, is the police simply viewing what people made public, or do they have access to Facebook's raw data? If the former, simply making your profile and photos private would safeguard you there for the most part.