A US district court in California has dismissed a USD 15 billion lawsuit against Facebook, accusing the company of secretly tracking the internet activity of its users after they log off, Bloomberg reported. The judge agreed with Facebook’s argument that the case should be dismissed because subscribers did not specify how they were harmed. The judge, who took more than three years to issue his ruling after hearing arguments in the case, said the users could refile most of their claims in a revised lawsuit.
Facebook users alleged in a 2012 complaint that while they may have agreed to the company’s installation of “cookie” files on their computers to track and transmit their web browsing, they didn’t consent to such monitoring after logging out of the social network. The lawsuit consolidated similar complaints filed on behalf of US residents who subscribed to Facebook from May 2010 to September 2011 in 10 states, including California, Texas and Alabama.
In the San Jose case, the plaintiffs accused Facebook of violating the US Wiretap Act by monitoring their online activity while they weren’t logged on. They also accused Facebook of improperly profiting from their information. The judge has given the plaintiffs until 30 November to revise their claims, including invasion of privacy and alleged violations of the Wiretap Act. The law provides for damages of up to USD 100 a violation per day for each Facebook user, according to the complaint. Based on an estimate of 150 million affected users, the plaintiffs calculated potential damages of USD 15 billion.
