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.
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.
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. What do you know about Facebook? Try our quiz!
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Seriously, leave facebook now! If you're totally oblivious to privacy-based sites, then check out some of these: Ravetree, DuckDuckGo, HushMail, and there are many more.