14 DAY TRIAL // Not that it surprises anyone at this point, but Facebook is facing another lawsuit, this time in California. Five individual users have filed a suit in the Orange County Superior Court claiming the site violates several state laws related to privacy and protection of personal data especially concerned with the site sharing the data with third parties.
On the face of it, privacy concerns are very real when dealing with a service that handles some of your most personal and sensitive information. Facebook though has had a very solid policy concerning privacy and has typically had restrictive default settings allowing users to choose what information they want to share and with whom. The social network also provides extensive privacy options that cover, in detail, most of the features on the site. Still, with a company this large you'd expect some issues to show up so a lawsuit may have some merits or basis.
That is, until you look at the exact claims, which anyone with even a basic knowledge of how a social network is supposed to work will find at least a little dubious. Of the five individuals involved two are minors under 13, a clear violation of Facebook’s Terms of Service and the law, which mandates users on most sites like this to be at least 13 years old. Another plaintiff is suing the company for changing the ToS over the years, something common for most web sites, and for changing from a college-only social network to one opened to users worldwide.
It gets better, as Elvina Beck, another plaintiff in the suit and a Los Angeles actress and model, is suing the site for displaying the photos she uploaded and wants to get paid for them. “Plaintiff Beck has multiple commercial representatives/agents for print, commercial and theatrical work. Plaintiff Beck’s name, likeness and photos are highly valuable commercial assets. [...] Plaintiff Beck’s digital images have been disseminated by Facebook without her consent, knowledge, or compensation,” the lawsuit filing reads.
The filing goes on to take issue with pretty much every feature on the social network and claims that Facebook has made a “business model and apparatus designed to harvest as much personal and private information as possible in easiest, quickest, and most innocuous-looking manner possible” and that it “seeks to open and/or disseminate private information to third parties for commercial purposes and economic benefit.” Facebook, as expected, isn't very concerned about the lawsuit, stating, “We see no merit to this suit and we plan to fight it.”