Wendy Davis reports:
A Facebook update earlier this year resulted in the disclosure of users’ names and sensitive information to advertisers, two social networking site members assert in new court papers.
David Gould and Mike Robertson allege that from February until May, Facebook leaked a host of data about users who clicked on ads via the referrer headers, which allegedly transmitted enough data to marketers that they could identify the people who landed on advertisers’ sites after clicking ads on Facebook.
“This unauthorized disclosure of a person’s identity and what Facebook page they were viewing could have the effect of revealing to advertisers confidential and sometimes highly sensitive information, including a user’s private interests,” Gould and Robertson allege in an amended complaint filed Monday in federal district court in San Jose.
[…]
The new complaint replaces two separate lawsuits that were filed in June.
Read more on MediaPost.
Anyone else feel like they need a scorecard to keep all of these lawsuits against Facebook straight? It”s become a depressing pattern:
- Facebook makes a change
- Privacy advocates complain and/or the Canadian government opens an investigation
- Facebook users sue
- Facebook makes another change to quash the uproar
- Rinse
- Repeat