When Facebook launched Beacon in 2007, there was a lot of controversy. There were a good number of class action privacy lawsuits. This lead to the recent shutting down of Beacon. The settlement cost Facebook quite a bit of money too. Facebook plans to donate $9.5 million to an organization that advocates online privacy.
Facebook Director of Policy Communications Barry Schnitt said that the situation around Beacon “underscored how critical it is to provide extensive user control over how information is shared.”
“We look forward to the creation of the foundation and its work to educate Internet users on how best to control their privacy; engage in safe social networking practices; and, generally, enjoy themselves more online by having knowledge that gives them a greater sense of control,” added Schnitt.
Facebook Beacon started in November 2007 as a marketing campaign for advertisers. Beacon would find out what types of items and services you are buying on e-commerce websites and report it to the Facebook homepage. The service was opt-out rather than opt-in which made it even more controversial. Mark Zuckerberg personally wrote an apology letter to the users in order to calm the mob. But it was too late. Now Facebook is really paying for it.
Facebook is being sued for violation of privacy, copyright, and for hosting images of people without the consent of those who are in the pictures.
Below is an excerpt of the lawsuit on behalf of an 11 year old girl:
“Plaintiff Xavier O. is an 11-year-old minor residing with his parents in Orange County, California. Plaintiff Xavier O. has a Facebook account that was opened without the knowledge or consent of his parent or guardian. Plaintiff Xavier O. has uploaded personal information, videos and photographs, including swimming and/or partially clothed photographs of children ages 5 to 11. On or about August 8, 2009, Plaintiff Xavier O. posted ‘Xavier O. has swine flu… Please pray for me… God Bless.’ Upon learning of the Facebook account and the posting of an uncertain medical condition, Plaintiff Xavier O’s parents removed the medical condition posting from Facebook. Xavier O. and his parents have been unable to learn where the minor’s medical information may have been stored, disseminated or sold by Facebook.”
This sounds like more of a parental issue to me. One of the complaints even mentions how Facebook went from being known as Thefacebook to Facebook.com.
“Catherine Aiko is a college student. She joined ‘a Mark Zuckerberg production’ called ‘Thefacebook’ in or about May 2005, and was required to have a verified college email to join. Thefacebook of 2004 and/or 2005 states Thefacebook is ‘an online directory that connects people through social networks at schools’ that prides itself in being a positive environment for peers to safely interact.’ The facebook of 2004 and/or 2005 states it was ‘limited to your own college or university, and ‘members’ could ‘use Thefacebook to: Search for people at your school, Find out who is in your classes, and Look up your friends’ friends.’ The Terms and Conditions of 2004 and 2005 changed over time and at various dates stated ‘You may remove your Member Content from the site at any time. If you choose to remove your Member Content, the license granted… will automatically expire.”
The attorneys representing the plaintiffs above and several other plaintiffs are Dana B. Taschner of and W. Mark Lanier of Lanier Law Firm.
“We see no merit to this suit and we plan to fight it,” stated Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt.
Theodore Karantsalis (pictured above) decided to sue Facebook for $70.50 last week. He claimed that Facebook failed to protect users from viruses. He based the dollar amount figure based on having to re-add friends.
Karantsalis wanted to sue Facebook for having to re-add 250 friends that were removed at a value of $0.30 each. Karantsalis is a librarian that lives in Florida.
“I spoke with FB’s law department and the case has been resolved,” stated Karantsalis in an e-mail. “I will file the attached Notice of Dismissal tomorrow. We agreed to add each other as ‘friends’ and ‘poke’ each other periodically. Also, FB is going to send me a T-shirt and I’m going to wear it in my profile photo.”
Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt was a bit baffled by the whole situation:
“We’re very interested to hear how he came up with the figure of $70.50,” wrote Schnitt before the issue was resolved. “He’s not going to get it but we promise to refund all the money he paid to use Facebook. Seriously, we’re glad to know how important Facebook is to Mr. Karantsalis but his account was not disabled, is currently active, and he is using it, so I’m not sure what the problem is.”
Karantsalis said that his account was renamed to John Doe and a spam message containing malware was sent out to his friends with a link that had a URL domain name “.im.” Karantsalis said that he did not fall for a phishing scam on the social network so he did not know how this could have happened. At the Miami Dade College, Karantsalis teaches courses on safe computing practices.
The lawsuit was filed to get their attention because Facebook did not answer any e-mails or phone calls.
Over the last week, Facebook has been criticized for not deleting groups that promote the denial of the Holocaust. The biggest debate around these groups was the issue of free speech and Facebook’s terms of service (TOS). Brian Cuban, a Dallas-based attorney and brother of Mark Cuban, has been pushing for the removal of the Holocaust denial groups.
“The Holocaust Denial movement is nothing more than a pretext to allow the preaching of hatred against Jews and to recruit other like minded individuals to do the same. Allowing these groups to flourish on Facebook under the guise of ‘open discussion’ does nothing more than help spread their message of hate,” wrote Brian Cuban on his blog. “Is this the kind of open discussion that Facebook wants to encourage? Is this really where you want to draw your line?”
Since Cuban started pushing for the removal and additional coverage was made at TechCrunch, two out of the five groups have been disabled. Three of them remain. Facebook has pushed for the removal of pictures that show breastfeeding and even recently banned a Ku Klux Klan group. Why they are taking their time removing the Holocaust Denial groups is a mystery to me.
Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt responded the controversy being stirred by Brian Cuban and Michael Arrington (TechCrunch). Schnitt wrote “Many of us at Facebook have direct personal connection to the Holocaust, through parents who were forced to flee Europe or relatives who could not escape. We believe in Facebook’s mission that giving people tools to make the world more open is a better way to combat ignorance or deception than censorship, though we recognize that others–including those at the company, disagree.”
