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Users Sue Google, Facebook, Zynga Over Privacy
Trailrunner7 writes "A raft of class action lawsuits filed in Federal court charge the globe's biggest social networking firms with violating federal communications privacy laws, allowing advertisers to profit from personal information harvested from users. Weeks after the Wall Street Journal blew the whistle on lax data privacy standards on Facebook, a string of class action suits attempt to hold the social networking giant, as well as game company Zynga and Google liable for what the suits contend are lax practices that allow advertisers to harvest personal information on Web users. The suits are seeking monetary damages on behalf of potentially millions of users of the three companies. The suits allege that the users' personal information has been leaked to advertisers and other unauthorized individuals, in violation of the companies' privacy policies and a number of state and federal statues protecting the confidentiality of electronic communications."
Who would have thought that posting something to a vast world wide network could result in many people seeing it? It's getting so you can't shout out your front door without people hearing you. You also can't post secrets on billboards without them being read by passers by. What is the world coming to?
I am the penguin that codes in the night.
No "Users" are suing these companies, Lawyers are suing. No User will gain much benefit from the results of the suit, win or lose, lawyers will.
This is nothing but a get rich quick scheme for Lawyers.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Regardless of the fact that 'things you put on the internet are now public', there is a point that these companies are a little devious in their methods of selling your information. I think mistakes are being made on both sides: users assuming everything is private (I have no idea why), and companies abusing that fact.
I don't think anything will come of this lawsuit except media attention, which will hopefully make users smarten up, thus making this less of an issue.
My $0.02..
In reading TFA there are actually three suits. One against Zynga, one against Zynga and Facebook, and one against Google. The one against Google seems by far the weakest since it alleges that the information that Google anonymizes is being put back togetehr by third parties and then sold. The Zynga and Facebook clims seem to be a straight sale of your personal data. I'd guess the suits against Zynga and Facebook make it further than the one against Google, just because there is a more direct allegation. That plus Google seems to consult with its lawyers before doing things.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Fantastic and insightful, now the part in TFS even mentions that Facebook in particular violated it's own privacy policy so they aren't even following the TOS that you agreed to. When a site is advertised as a way to share information with just friends and then that information is available to more than your friends then you have some seriously false advertising. Sure people were naive to believe a free service could have enough integrity to do this but it's definitely not as simple as you make it out to be as people are inherently social beings and as such want to extend their network of friends beyond the people they see everyday.