Facebook alleged to have sold information in users' private messages
ABC
By finance reporter Pat McGrath and staff January 3, 2014, 4:06 pm
Facebook is being sued in the United States for allegedly selling details of private messages to advertisers without users' consent.
Documents filed in California as part of a class action lawsuit claim Facebook intercepts and scans messages for information about its millions of users.
The class action is being led by two Facebook users in the US, and is being brought on behalf of all users located within the US who have sent or received private Facebook messages that included a URL (webpage link) in the content of the message.
Matthew Campbell of Arkansas and Michael Hurley of Oregon allege that Facebook promises users differing levels of privacy based on whether they make a public post or send a private message or chat, but that the company scans those private communications for purposes unrelated to sending them.
"Contrary to its representations, 'private' Facebook messages are systematically intercepted by the company in an effort to learn the contents of the users' communications," the plaintiffs claim in court documents.
"When a user composes a Facebook message and includes a link to a third party website, 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."
The lawsuit alleges that this breaches the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and Californian privacy and competition laws.
'Profitable opportunity'
It is also alleged that this behaviour gives Facebook an advantage over many of its competitors.
"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," the lawsuit alleges.
"Thus, Facebook has positioned itself to acquire pieces of the users' profiles that are likely unavailable to other data aggregators."
In the past two years, Facebook has paid more than $US30 million to settle law suits relating to privacy.
However, Facebook says it will be defending this class action.
"We believe the allegations are without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously," said a company spokesperson.
