Facebook seems to face once again legal problems with the privacy of its users.
This time a lawsuit was filed in the North against Facebook that claims the company systematically scans the mail of its users on the social network without their consent and makes money by sharing the data it collects with advertisers and commercials. Companies.
According to the lawsuit, Facebook may have violated federal privacy laws by scanning personal users' personal messages.
Facebook allegedly routinely scans URLs found within users' private messages for a variety of purposes, including anti-malware protection, searches for industrial products, child pornography, the lawsuit claims the company also uses this data for targeted advertising and more services to the user.
The claimants, Matthew Campbell and Michael Hurley, argue that Facebook scans and collects URLs in a form that facilitates the search, violating the Electronic Communications Act and the Privacy Act, as Verge said.
Facebook claims that the company scans users' mail and keeps it archives URL but in an anonymous way, which cannot be used by advertisers.
However, according to a technique analysis made on behalf of the plaintiffs, each message containing a URL is stored in “Titan,” a private database that contains messages and displays the date and time the message was sent, along with the user identities of both the sender and recipient.
However, it turns out that Facebook has been using this practice for years, but the company claimed it had stopped for a long time.
“We agree with the court that the alleged conduct does not give rise to any actual damage and that it would not be appropriate to allow the plaintiffs to seek damages on the charge," a Facebook spokesperson told CNET.
"The rest of the claims are about old practices that are perfectly legal, and we look forward to resolving these allegations on the merits."
However, according to the plaintiffs, Facebook continues to collect URLs from his users' mail.
"Facebook's source code not only reveals that Facebook continues to collect URLs from mail, but also that it continues to use the content it collects."
You can see the complaint below. The lawsuit was initially filed with 2012 but now (at last) the case is expected to go ahead.
Campbell v. Facebook Class Certification by Anonymous Mw4rxN5su
