Facebook is being sued by two users claiming the social networking site intercepts private messages and shares the data with third parties.
The lawsuit claims Facebook violates the Electronic Communications Privacy Act by scanning message content containing web links and profiling the sender’s web activity, sharing this data with advertisers and marketers and undermining security.
Michael Sobol, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in the complaint the scanning “is a mechanism for Facebook to surreptitiously gather data in an effort to improve its marketing algorithms and increase its ability to profit from data about Facebook users”.
The plaintiffs are seeking a class action on behalf of all Facebook users who have sent a private message including web links in the last two years, seeking to end the practice and obtain damages for each user.
In response to a query from HumanIPO, Facebook said: “We continue to believe the allegations in this lawsuit have no merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”
