An American judge has ruled in favor of the trial of a mass lawsuit against Facebook, for violating the privacy of its users. Specifically, Oakland, California District Judge Phyllis Hamilton denied her request companys to cancel the action, which concerns the scanning of the content of the messages exchanged by the users of its services, for advertising purposes.
Facebook claimed that scan of its users' messages is covered by an exception to the Federal Electronic Communications Data Protection Act, which permits service providers to watch in the normal course of their business.
However, the judge held that Facebook Inc "Does not provide an adequate explanation for how the contested act falls within the normal course of its proceedings."
According to the lawsuit, filed in 2013, Facebook scans the content of private messages with links to websites sent between users and then creates profiles with thepriceσεις τους. Το προφίλ αυτό χρησιμοποιείται για την προβολή στοχευμένης advertisingto users.
The plaintiffs argue that scanning private messages violates California's federal and state law.
The court ruling states that Facebook stopped the practice in October 2012, but the company still does some analysis of the antivirus and spam protection messages.
The lawsuit was filed by Facebook user Matthew Campbell, who is seeking legal standing as a representative of users on USA.
