Facebook has been accused of pulling a stunt the NSA would have been proud of, namely the systematic scanning of the private messages of its users. And to make matters worse, Facebook then allegedly sold the data it mined to advertisers and marketers, without the consent of its users, according to a class action suit filed by angry users.
Private Messages
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California by Facebook users Matthew Campbell and Michael Hurley, on behalf of all Facebook users in the United States. Michael Hurley is an Oregon resident, but Campbell is reportedly a lawyer and is the author of the left-leaning blog, the Blue Hog Report. The class-action lawsuit stems from claims in late 2012, initially on Hacker News, that Facebook scans the content of private messages between users, looking for any hyperlinks to third-party websites. If it finds any hyperlinks, Facebook then allegedly registers the link as though the user had “Liked” the page. Effectively, these links are said to be recorded in order to contribute to the brand's Facebook activity, and can add to the amount of 'likes' a firm has. Facebook admitted these actions to the Wall Street Journal, but insisted that “absolutely no private information has been exposed” and that users' privacy settings were not affected. But Campbell and Hurley disagree, and argue that Facebook is mining their private messages to boost its marketing efforts, and is ignoring user privacy. They claim that Facebook is violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California privacy laws by its intentional interception of electronic communications. The lawsuit also takes issue with Facebook when it touts its messaging system as private. “Contrary to its representations, 'private' Facebook messages are systematically intercepted by the Company in an effort to learn the contents of the users' communications,” said the lawsuit. “In the course of the last year, independent security researchers discovered that Facebook reviews the contents of its users' private Facebook messages for purposes unrelated to the facilitation of message transmission. When a user composes a Facebook message and includes a link to a third party website (a “URL”), the Company scans the content of the Facebook message, follows the enclosed link, and searches for information to profile the message-sender's web activity.” “This practice...enables Facebook to mine user data and profit from those data by sharing them with third parties - namely, advertisers, marketers, and other data aggregators,” states the lawsuit. “Representing to users that the content of Facebook messages is 'private' creates an especially profitable opportunity for Facebook, because users who believe they are communicating on a service free from surveillance are likely to reveal facts about themselves that they would not reveal had they known the content was being monitored,” says the lawsuit.
Privacy Violations
Campbell and Hurley are seeking damages of $100 (£61) a day for each day of alleged violation or $10,000 (£6,078), for each user claiming to be affected. Facebook meanwhile has vowed to fight the lawsuit. ”We believe the allegations are without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously,” Facebook is quoted in various media outlets as saying in its statement. Facebook is certainly no stranger to privacy concerns. In 2010 Mark Zuckerberg prompted a huge backlash when he said that people no longer have an expectation of privacy thanks to increasing uptake of social networking. And in 2012, the social networking giant also faced criticism over changes to its privacy policies. And last August, Facebook was ordered to pay $20m (£12m) in damages in a similar lawsuit. That lawsuit had charged Facebook with violating users' privacy through the use of their names and likenesses in its Sponsored Stories advertising programme.
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