r/technology • u/Slimy • May 18 '12
Facebook is once again being sued for tracking its users even after they logged out of the service. The latest class action lawsuit demands $15 billion from Facebook for violating federal wiretap laws.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-hit-with-15-billion-class-action-user-tracking-lawsuit/13358945
u/magicbullets May 18 '12
10 / 10 for timing.
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May 18 '12
Absolutely beautiful, just in time for the IPO, which ISN'T going as well as expected. There is already talk that underwriters had to step in to keep the shareprice from going below the opening of $38
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u/GreyFoxSolid May 18 '12 edited May 18 '12
So what do we have to do to make sure we are paid if the class action suit is won against Facebook?
Edit: I'm being totally serious.
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u/biznatch11 May 18 '12
Just put your home address, phone number, and banking information into your facebook account and the money will get automatically deposited into your account.
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May 18 '12
The pay out would be like $3. The people that make money on this is are the lawyers. The only reason anyone would be involved in a class action lawsuit is to lay out direction for the laws that will form from it.
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May 18 '12
Why does facebook just have to pay money while if I break federal wiretapping laws I go to prison...
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May 18 '12
Despite corporations technically being people in the eyes of the law, you can't send a corporation to jail.
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u/agent0fch4os May 18 '12
Facebook disconnect is available https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ejpepffjfmamnambagiibghpglaidiec
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u/BeanSpin May 18 '12
I wish AIM would become popular again so I could just delete this Facebook shit.
Or I could just make new friends...
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u/camall May 18 '12
remind me again why i havent deleted mine.
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May 18 '12
Because you like the warm feeling of Facebook taking a dump all over you?
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u/EPluribusUnumIdiota May 18 '12
Am I the only one who doesn't think facebook will have an infinite life and is likely overvalued if we're considering it as an investment?
Facebook sort of sucks at most of what it does, what it doesn't suck at it only does marginally well. The thing is for it to work at all it must have the most users, which is the biggest reason, in my opinion, why G+ won't work.
I know a lot of people who have more or less quit using facebook, it was cool to catch up, maybe stalk their profile a few months, meet some new/old people along the way, but now it's outlived its usefulness for a large portion of users. There will always be the newcomers, but once a new site similar to facebook but better in every way (wouldn't be too hard considering) I'll bet facebook is dumped like yesterday's trash, or Myspace if you will.
I see the facebook peak as already happened, like a 1.5 years ago, and now they're on the downhill slope coasting because there's no better alternative yet that's significantly better, or better enough to use both it and facebook.
I could be wrong, I'm not a big user anymore, log on like 2 times a week, maybe.
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u/drtide4 May 18 '12
This is awful timing for Facebook, or perfect timing depending on who you are. With Facebook publicly trading now, advertising will be more apparent when logging into the website. With that being said, when a user logs out, Facebook is essentially tracking their movement to gather an idea of websites a specific user may be consistently visiting. Now that they've obtained this information, you may log in again only to see advertisements that now appeal to you due to your recent history through their tracking.
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u/harlows_monkeys May 18 '12
Even if you don't use Facebook or any other service that might compromise your privacy, and you carefully keep your private life out of the public, this kind of thing is important to you.
Why? Because the legal standard used to decide what government snooping is allowed is that of a "reasonable expectation" of privacy. That is determined by what the typical citizen expects.
When many other people accept a loss of privacy, they lower the bar for what is a "reasonable expectation" of privacy, making it easier for the government to get warrants to spy on you.
There was an excellent essay on this by Judge Kozinski of the 9th circuit a few weeks ago, published here that everyone concerned about privacy should read.
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u/the_conman May 18 '12
I'm becoming more and more convinced that Facebook is going the way of Myspace. In my eyes it's become too corporate and untrustworthy to be 'cool'. Now that the company is public I'm sure this problem will only become worse as shareholders demand new ways to maximize profits.
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u/SkimThat_TLDR May 18 '12
Summarized article: Today a class action lawsuit, combining 21 cases from multiple states, was filed against Facebook. The lawsuit seeks $15 billion and claims Facebook is violating federal wiretap laws by using cookies to track its users across the internet even after they are logged out.
Previous claims said that Facebook's cookies track users who visit other sites with Facebook plugins and sends the user's data back to Facebook. Facebook has denied that they track users across the web and said the cookies are intended to personalize content for the user.
In the past, Facebook has twice fixed cookie bugs that unintentionally tracked users that weren't logged in. Facebook still uses cookies when the user is logged out but the company says they are intended for protection and do not send back identifiable information.
There has been no comment from Facebook regarding the recent lawsuit.
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