Facebook Pays $10MM to Settle Sponsored Stories Class Action
Facebook settled a class action lawsuit over its Sponsored Stories program that used members likenesses to reveal to their friends that such user had liked a certain product or service without prior consent or compensation. To put the $10MM payment to charity in context, Venture Beat exxplains:
But given the fact that, . . . this could have become a class action lawsuit involving a third of the population of the United States as plaintiffs, $10 million seems a fairly small price to pay.
NJ Federal Judge: Employer’s Shoulder Browsing Facebook Pages is Invasion of Privacy
A federal court in New Jersey held that requiring an employee to reveal Facebook postings of another employee that were not widely disseminated violated the employee’s “reasonable expectation that her Facebook posting would remain private.” The ruling comes as the California Assembly and Senate have passed competing versions of legislation that would outlaw such behavior.
Facebook Wins/Loses Privacy Vote by a Landslide
Facebook’s privacy policy gave users the opportunity to vote and comment on its privacy changes which would be binding if more than 30% of all active registered users as of the date of the notice vote. At the end of the week-long vote, a resounding 87% had voted no, but it was meaningless since only 0.38 percent voted – a hundred fold less than needed to make it binding.
More Info: Facebook paid $10M to settle “oops, we used your face” ads; Accessing an Employee’s Facebook Posts by “Shoulder Surfing” a Coworker’s Page States Privacy Claim — Ehling v. Monmouth Ocean Hosp., Whopping .038% of Facebook users vote on data use policy change, Ars Technica.
Cyber Report 