Class action lawsuit against Facebook - boon for privacy lawyers... but no one else?

Privacy Lawyers Sell Out Facebook Users for $10 Million

Our esteemed fellow member Corruption Exposed offered us this Breaking Alternative News thread last May;

Facebook Suit Over Subscriber Tracking Seeks $15 Billion

And as a follow-up, I humbly submit this development for those tracking the goings on....

Facebook is agreeing to give its users the right to “limit” how the social-networking site uses their faces in ads, as a part of a way to settle a privacy lawsuit brought against the company.

So the legal confrontation ends in a "settlement" .... right?

But the settlement seems like a huge departure from the entire point of the complaint.

The case, for those unfamiliar with is was against Facebook’s "Sponsored Stories program"

Sponsored stories work like this: If a Facebook user ‘likes’ an advertiser, that user’s profile and picture may appear on their friends’ Facebook pages — in ads — stating that the person, indeed, ‘likes’ that advertiser. Facebook also reserves the right to do this on ads that appear on sites other than Facebook.

The entire complaint was centered around the fact that Facebook buried this "term/condition" within the mountainous volume of their 'user agreement.' Which according to the complaint was that the users were not adequately informed of this use of their likeness and assumed support of the advertiser....

As part of the deal, the social-networking site will have to disclose to Facebook users in its new terms of service, which nobody reads, that it can use its 850 million users as public spokespersons for some company for just having “Liked” a company in order to watch a movie or get a discount.

yet to be approved settlement text

Ready for the slap-in-the-face moment Facebook aficionados?

While the 45-page settlement agreement is nebulous at best when it comes to how much a Facebook user would be able to stop appearing on Sponsored Stories, the deal makes clear that plaintiff’s lawyers are entitled to up to $10 million in fees, and that Facebook will donate $10 million to charity. Facebook users receive no compensation under the deal.

Another - less acknowledged point... the settlement is good for two years only.... after that ... who knows?

Interestingly, when Facebook lost to a suit regarding the data exploitation of their "Beacon" program.. they "admitted no wrongdoing".... which is something I thought only "evil" corporations did..... I guess I was wrong... because I bet this settlement which privacy lawyers are likely celebrating over, will likely be exactly the same.

The data of some 850 million users are at the disposal of Facebook's marketing folks.... accept it.

That really pisses me off that facebook "won" this. 20 mill is nothing compared to the billions they make in advertising....

EDIT: why only the two years?

reply to post by openeyeswideshut


The 2 years thing?

I really wish I knew... but it seems a couple of standard tricks in "settlement" statements are the "no fault admitted" and "for the period" so that they can go back to doing what they claimed was never wrong in the first place... if they 'settle' that they were never at fault, you can't claim their are "repeatedly" abusing the system... because "you" settled and agreed it wasn't any fault of theirs.....

This is only a guess... I am no lawyer.

Well I did a search because I didn't want to start a thread if there was one already.... I actually got a email today about this lawsuit and it wants me to file a claim, then I google searched it to see if it was a scam.... Well it's real and filing for the lawsuit isn't really worth it to me, I read each person can get up to $10 soooo what's the point really?