An Austrian law student, Max Schrems, recently filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook for violating users' privacy, and is asking 1 billion of Facebook's users to join the case against the social media company.
The damages being claimed are 500 euros, or $670, per user for data violations such as helping the U.S. National Security Agency run the Prism program.
Users outside the U.S. and Canada are free to join the case via a website that has been set up for the case, www.fbclaim.com. If the case is won, users who have joined will get the damages owed to them.
A financier will take 20 percent of damages if the case is won, and will bear legal costs for the case in the event that it is lost, meaning that users are free to join the case at no financial risk.
This is not the first time that Max Schrems has had a legal run-in with Facebook. Dubbed the "thorn in Facebook's side," Schrems filed a lawsuit against Facebook last year for the company's involvement with Prism.
Schrems became famous in 2011 for being the first European to request Facebook disclose all of the information it had on him, after which he received a stack of 1,222 pages.
In 2012 Schrems had another battle with Facebook, which eventually led to the company having to abandon its photo-tagging suggestion feature in Europe. The claim was that the feature violated Facebook users' privacy.
According to Schrems, this latest lawsuit is primarily about ensuring that users' data is protected.
"We are only claiming a small amount, as our primary objective is to ensure correct data protection," Schrems said. "However, if many thousands of people participate we would reach an amount that will have a serious impact on Facebook."
The lawsuit will take place in the Commercial Court in Vienna, and will be against the Irish subsidiary of Facebook, which is essentially the headquarters for Facebook outside of the U.S.
Schrems allegedly already has over 20 complaints of data breaches involving Facebook that have been filed with the Data Protection Commission in Ireland.
Under Austrian law, a group of people is able to transfer financial claims to a single person. In this case that person is Schrems. The lawsuit, being dubbed as a "David and Goliath lawsuit," could eventually be the largest class and privacy action ever taken on Europe.
Facebook now has around 1.32 billion users worldwide, and is currently valued at almost $200 billion.
