A class action lawsuit filed just a few weeks ago has brought another Internet giant into the light having allegedly breached the privacy of its users. This is not the first time that the social media site has been sued for breaches of privacy and it almost certainly will not be the last. Just last year Facebook settled a different privacy class action lawsuit alleging that Facebook’s Sponsored Story advertisements used the user’s name and “Liked” information without the ability to opt out or without their permission as well as “liking” pages that the user did not “Like” themselves. Facebook settled with the five plaintiffs, two of which were minors, agreeing to pay them $US20-million. The year before, Facebook settled a very similar class action by agreeing to pay out $US10-million to charity.
Facebook is not the only provider of a free messaging service that has faced scrutiny over its privacy practices or been brought to answer in court. Google, the creators of Gmail, has been forced into court to defend against lawsuits also alleging breaches of privacy involving screening of user’s email messages. Filed in the same Federal Court as the most recent Facebook class action, the Court ruled that Google’s actions were breaches of the user’s privacy and beyond that, the Court found that Google’s Street View cars inadvertently sweeping up personal data from homes as it drove was in violation of the federal wiretapping laws and ruled that Google could also be held liable in damages for that transgression.
In the newest class action, filed in Federal Court in California on 30 December 2013, the two American plaintiffs allege that Facebook has been scanning users’ private messages that contain links to other webpages and using those messages to capture data about the user to share with data collectors and advertisers. Because the Facebook users are led to believe that those messages are “private” the plaintiffs argue that Facebook has violated the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act and other California state privacy laws. In response to the allegations made in the complaint, Facebook has denied their merit and has said that they look forward to defending against them. As the lawsuit is still young in the judicial process, we will have the watch how things progress, but chances are very good that if there is merit to the claims, Facebook will be paying large fines and will likely choose to settle as it has done in many other cases preceding this.
If you are concerned that your internet company or business could be in breach of its privacy policy or the privacy of your customers, or just aren’t sure, please contact us to share your concerns and we’ll be happy to help make certain that a costly lawsuit is not in your future.