Facebook has successfully settled a 2011 privacy suit, according to a Reuters report,
paying $20 million to a class action group who claim the Sponsored
Stories program violated their privacy. The terms of the settlement also
require Facebook to change the program so as to give users more control
over how their content is shared, which the plaintiffs estimate could
cost Facebook as much as $145 million.
The central issue is Facebook's
practice of using a user's likeness as an advertising tool, displaying
the users' profile image and name alongside a branding page they had
"Liked." A California Civil Code makes likeness advertising illegal
without explicit consent and, as the settlement makes clear, simply
checking Facebook's Terms of Service isn't enough. It remains to be seen
how Facebook will restructure the program to comply with the
settlement, but some version will almost certainly survive. In the 19
months since the initial claims, Sponsored Stories netted Facebook
nearly $234 million.Source: The Verge
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