The social media giant may need crisis management if latest lawsuit brings on the privacy hounds
Privacy is a hot-button issue in the online world these days, making the latest lawsuit to be filed against Facebook a potential doozy. According to the plaintiffs, Facebook has been violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act by scanning the URLs found in private messages sent via the service.
This isn’t just a tin-foil-hat theory either, at least according to Swiss information security firm High-Tech Bridge, who found that Facebook robots accessed URLs sent within a private message, even when specifically restricted by backend coding on the destination page.
The plaintiffs not only allege that Facebook invades the privacy of “private” messages, but that it uses the information it finds there for profit.
Here’s a sample from the criminal complaint, filed December 30 in a California court:
“(The scanning) is a mechanism for Facebook to surreptitiously gather data in an effort to improve its marketing algorithms and increase its ability to profit from data about Facebook users”
Considering many experts claim the exodus from Facebook, especially among the younger generation, is due to privacy concerns, this case looks particularly bad for the social media giant’s reputation, and bottom line.
While Facebook is currently dismissing the claims as “without merit”, it should be interesting to see what crisis management strategies it employs should the case attract more public interest.
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[Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]