Facebook has come under scrutiny yet again for allegedly mining users' private messages without consent and sharing the information with third parties that include advertisers, marketers and other data aggregators.
In a suit filed by two Facebook users - Matthew Campbell and Michael Hurley - the social network allegedly scanned private messages with URLs in them "for purposes including but not limited to data mining and user profiling."
According to the lawsuit, when a user composed messages that contained URLs, Facebook scanned the message and tinkered the sender's profile for its web activity "to improve its marketing algorithms and increase its ability to profit from data about Facebook users." The plaintiffs based their allegations on a report from Swiss security firm High-Tech Bridge that also revealed Facebook scanned the links shared in a private message.
Campbell and Hurley said the practice violated U.S. Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California privacy and unfair competition laws.
"Representing to users that the content of Facebook messages is 'private' creates an especially profitable opportunity for Facebook, because users who believe they are communicating on a service free from surveillance are likely to reveal facts about themselves that they would not reveal had they known the content was being monitored," the court filings said.
Facebook has responded to the allegations, saying that they are "without merit." "We believe the allegations are without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously," said Facebook spokeswoman Jackie Rooney.
Apart from the injunction against Facebook to stop scanning the links shared in private messages, the plaintiffs are also seeking statutory damages including $100 each day from Facebook for violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
