Facebook Beacon ruined Christmas and a group of its members are not going to let the social networking site forget it.
A group of irked Facebook members filed a class-action lawsuit against Facebook Tuesday that said the company’s controversial Beacon advertising program violates several laws, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).
Beacon, which launched in late 2007, basically tracked the activity of Facebook members on certain partner sites and then posted an item in users’ news feeds when they purchased something.
Bought movie tickets on Fandango, or new shoes on overstock.com? If you failed to click “no” on a blink-and-you-miss-it notice during checkout, your Facebook newsfeed would soon read “Chloe bought Dark Knight on Fandango.”
That might not seem too harmful, but what if you bought tickets to “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” on Fandango or a copy of “He’s Just Not That Into You” on overstock.com? Suddenly, all 200 of our closest “friends” are privy to that information.
That’s what happened to people like Sean Lane, a plaintiff in the class-action suit. He bought a ring for his wife as a Christmas present via overstock.com, but the surprise was ruined when Overstock sent the information to Facebook. “Sean Lane bought a 14K White Gold 1/5 ct Diamond Eternity Flower Ring from overstock.com” showed up on his news feed, which was visible to his wife.
After a protest campaign spearheaded by MoveOn.org that accused Facebook Beacon of ruining Christmas, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg issued a mea culpa and altered Beacon to allow users to block partner Web sites from sending your information to the news feed.
That apparently was not enough for the 32 plaintiffs who filed suit on Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
“The heart of the conduct complained of involved the communication, transmission, and interception of personally identifying information and personal private data of the class members,” according to the suit.
Also named in the suit are partner sites Fandango, Hotwire, STA Travel, GameFly, Blockbuster, Overstock, andZappos.com.
Beacon violated the ECPA because Facebook intentionally obtained electronic communications between their members and partner sites and disclosed that information to a third party, according to the suit.
The program violated the VPPA because video retailers Blockbuster, Fandango, GameFly and overstock.com released information about their customers’ video usage without permission.
The VPPA was passed in 1988 after the video rental history of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork was published in a newspaper during his nomination process. Congress found that the videos one chooses to watch is deeply personal and should not be made public without permission.
Beacon also violated the CFFA by accessing a computer without permission, according to the lawsuit.
The suit also says Beacon was in violation of two California laws – the Consumer Legal Remedies Act and the California Computer Crime Law.
The lawsuit wants Facebook to hand over any money it earned from Beacon, pay attorneys’ fees and other costs, delete any information it obtained about the plaintiffs, never collect personal information about them without permission again, and consent to some sort of independent review to make sure Facebook is following the rules.
A Facebook spokeswoman said the company had not yet been served with the lawsuit and could not yet comment on it.
Appears courtesy of PC Magazine
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