Potential Class Action Privacy Case Against Facebook Heads to Mediation

Social media giant Facebook has reportedly agreed to engage in mediation with website users who claim the company violated their right to privacy. In 2013, two Facebook users filed a potential class action lawsuit against the company in the Northern District of California. In their complaint, the users accuse Facebook of violating federal wiretap laws. According to the plaintiffs, Facebook draws information from the private messages of users in order to derive certain information used by the social media platform.

The lawsuit apparently arose after a security researcher who is now employed by the nation’s Federal Trade Commission found that “Facebook interprets links within users’ messages to each other as “Likes,” and includes them in like-counters that appear on publishers’ pages.” Although the company initially asked the California court to dismiss the lawsuit, United States District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton refused after stating Facebook’s proposed definition of what constitutes intercepting user messages was too narrow. The judge also reserved judgment regarding whether the purported conduct meets the “ordinary course of business” exception to the wiretap law.

As part of an order signed in late May, Facebook and the plaintiffs must mediate their dispute by August 24, 2015. Be sure to check back for more on this interesting case!

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