On May 2012, Facebook faced a $15 million lawsuit for having invaded the privacy policy of users. They are said to have violated the Federal Wire Tap Act which after users have successfully and completely logged out of Facebook, they were being tracked across the web. The purpose of tracking users is to store all that data and sell them off to commercial websites that pay Facebook for their advertisement.
I know that during my experience with Facebook for over 6+ years, the increase in advertisement is huge now. I remember typing about a certain music artist and a second later I would have side ads promoting the artist, its album, concert tours, etc. It was as if every word I said was being stored and matched with a certain advertisement.
Now FB is being accused of over 21 accounts of privacy and tracking violations of its users. Their method of tracking users is through the use of cookies and they are now facing a Nationwide Class Action Cookie Tracking Lawsuit.
Facebook, on the other hand, defends itself by saying that they are not responsible for the way that cookies tend to act. The way they use cookies for their site is to allow users to personalize content they want to be displayed. Once logged out, those cookies are abandoned. They in no way possible track users across the web like they are being accused of doing.
In response to this lawsuit, 10 privacy advocacy organizations sent out letters to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking for FB to undergo a further investigation. The result of which they found that one of the cookies set third party tracking of users which did violate the privacy policy of users. Facebook then has changed their cookie usage, but is still to worry about future lawsuits due to the use of tracking users to gather information that is sold to commercial sites.
I believe Facebook has become a huge multimillionaire company due to the amount of advertising it provides user. Even if they do limit their cookie usage and the types they use, information gathered from each user will still exist. Especially now that almost everyone in the world has FB, it’ll be easier to find a loophole to getting around violating the privacy policy. I know that when I signed up for Facebook, I never fully read the terms and agreements section before creating an account and they could have easily made me agree to give up my privacy rights. I guess I need to begin reading those sections with more attention.
