PALO ALTO — Plaintiffs attorneys at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein filed a privacy class action against Facebook on Monday accusing the social networking site of scanning the content of messages it touts as private and using the information to sell targeted ads.
The 36-page complaint cites studies by security researchers indicating that Facebook systematically intercepts private messages to examine embedded URLs and assign “likes” to them as part of a business model based on aggregating user information. Though this practice is acknowledged in Facebook guidance for developers, it is not disclosed in the company’s user agreements, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
