Oct. 23, Friday - A United States District Judge has dismissed a user privacy lawsuit against Facebook Inc., in favor of the social networking site. Facebook is the most popular social platform in the world, and the Menlo Park, California-based company has been met with complaints on user privacy for the past few years. In this particular case, it took the Judge three years to make a decision to dismiss the complaint.
A report from Bloomberg said that an unspecified number of Facebook users filed a complaint against the company in 2012. The users maintained that while they may have agreed to install cookie files from Facebook to track and transmit their web browsing habits, they did not agree to be monitored by the social networking site once they have logged out of their accounts.
U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila ruled on Oct. 23, Friday, that the complaint should be dismissed, agreeing with Facebook Inc.'s argument that the users did not specify how they have been harmed. The lawsuit has included complaints from Facebook users who subscribed to the social networking site from September 2010 to May 2011. The complainants have come from 10 states including Texas, Alabama and California.
Judge Davila said that the plaintiffs have not been able to "adequately connect" Facebook's data collection to any specific harm that the method has been said to cause. Those who filed the lawsuit have not been able to show how they "personally lost the opportunity to sell their information or that the value of their information was somehow diminished after it was collected by Facebook," Davila said. The Judge has given the plaintiffs until Nov. 30 to revise their complaints.
Facebook meanwhile expressed that the company is pleased with the Judge's decision. The court has calculated about $15 billion damage costs brought about by the complaints. Facebook has faced similar privacy-invading allegations with its use of facial recognition algorithm and alleged scanning of users' private e-mail messages. Another complaint regarding the algorithm has been filed just last week.
