Facebook faces group privacy lawsuit

In a class-action lawsuit, Facebook, the world’s most popular social networking service, was accused by users of secretly tracking their Web activity after they logged off.

The company assures users that “cookie” files installed on their computers to identify them and track their interactions with Facebook’s applications and websites while they are logged on are removed when they log off, according to a complaint in federal court in San Jose, California. On September 26, Facebook admitted the cookies tracked users’ Internet activity after they logged off, according to yesterday’s complaint.

“This admission came only after an Australian technology blogger exposed Facebook’s practice of monitoring members who have logged out, although he brought the problems to the defendant’s attention a year ago,” according to the complaint.

On September 29, 10 public-interest groups asked the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate Facebook’s tracking of Internet users after they logged off. The Electronic Privacy Information Center and nine other groups urged the FTC to examine whether Facebook’s new Ticker and Timeline features increased privacy risks for users by combining biographical information in an easily accessible format.

The lawsuit, filed by Perrin Aikens Davis of Illinois, seeks a class, or group, status on behalf of other Facebook users living in the US. Davis seeks unspecified damages and a court order blocking the tracking based on alleged violations of federal laws, including restrictions on wiretapping, as well as computer fraud and abuse statutes.

“We believe this complaint is without merit and we will fight it vigorously,” Andrew Noyes, a spokesman Facebook, said in an e-mailed statement.

David Straite, a lawyer for Davis, said “our goal is to seek redress for the wrongs they have committed and to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”