Facebook Faces Class Action Lawsuit For Alleged Interception Of Private Messages To Provide Data To Marketers.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has become the latest Internet company to be sued by users for intercepting private messages and sharing the data with marketers for profit.
A lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims that Facebook systematically scans users’ private messages and reads URLs shared through messages by intentionally intercepting electronic communications, adding that, by doing so the social networking giant has violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California's privacy laws.
"Representing to users that the content of Facebook messages is "private" creates an especially profitable opportunity for Facebook," the complaint said, adding that by giving an impression that its free message service is free from surveillance, Facebook is misleading its users into giving information that they might not have shared if it was known that they would be intercepted.
“This practice is not done to facilitate the transmission of users’ communications via Facebook, but because it enables Facebook to mine user data and profit from those data by sharing them with third parties – namely, advertisers, marketers, and other data aggregators,” the complaint stated.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has become the latest Internet company to be sued by users for intercepting private messages and sharing the data with marketers for profit.
A lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims that Facebook systematically scans users’ private messages and reads URLs shared through messages by intentionally intercepting electronic communications, adding that, by doing so the social networking giant has violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California's privacy laws.
"Representing to users that the content of Facebook messages is "private" creates an especially profitable opportunity for Facebook," the complaint said, adding that by giving an impression that its free message service is free from surveillance, Facebook is misleading its users into giving information that they might not have shared if it was known that they would be intercepted.
“This practice is not done to facilitate the transmission of users’ communications via Facebook, but because it enables Facebook to mine user data and profit from those data by sharing them with third parties – namely, advertisers, marketers, and other data aggregators,” the complaint stated.
