In re Facebook Privacy Litigation

791 F. Supp. 2d 705 (2011)

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In re Facebook Privacy Litigation

United States District Court for the Northern District of California
791 F. Supp. 2d 705 (2011)

  • Written by Tammy Boggs, JD

Facts

Facebook, Inc. (defendant) operated a social-networking website and assigned users a unique identification (ID) number that was associated with the user’s real name, gender, picture, and other personal information. Users could access Facebook’s services free of charge, and Facebook made money through targeted advertising. However, Facebook’s policies prohibited the sharing of users’ true identities and specified personal information with advertisers. In a class-action lawsuit, Facebook users (plaintiffs) alleged that, between February and May 2010, Facebook improperly caused user ID numbers to be transmitted to advertisers, allowing the advertisers to learn users’ true identities without the users’ consent. The disclosure occurred when a user clicked on a third-party advertisement or advertising banner. Upon a user’s click, Facebook transmitted a “referral header” to the advertiser, which, in addition to reporting the specific advertisement that the user had viewed, reported the user’s ID number. The Facebook users claimed that Facebook’s sharing of users’ personal information violated provisions of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), including 18 U.S.C. § 2510 et seq. (the Wiretap Act) and 18 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq. (the Stored Communications Act), among other claims. Facebook filed a motion to dismiss.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Ware, J.)

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