Facebook Class Action Challenges Call, Text History Collection

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Earlier this week, Facebook Inc. was hit with a class action lawsuit by three users who claim the social network’s practice of collecting call and text history from its Facebook Messenger app on Android smartphones violates users’ privacy.

Plaintiffs Anthony Williams, Tyoka Brumfield and Wendy Burnett filed their Facebook Messenger class action lawsuit a few days after the technology website Ars Technica reported that the Facebook Messenger and Facebook Lite apps were programmed to collect users’ call logs and text data without their permission.

The plaintiffs allege Facebook exploited a vulnerability in the permission settings in some versions of the Android smartphone’s operating systems.

According to the Facebook class action lawsuit, when Android users install the Facebook Messenger and Facebook Lite smartphone applications, they are prompted to grant Facebook access to their phone’s contact list.

“But upon doing so, the Facebook Messenger and Facebook Lite apps for Android scrape users’ call and text logs,” the Facebook call history class action lawsuit says. “That is, Facebook scrapes years worth of call and text data, including whether each call was ‘Incoming,’ ‘Outgoing,’ or ‘Missed,’ the date and time of each call, the number dialed, the individual called, and the duration of each call.”

Facebook uses the user’s call history and incorporates the data into a profile for the user, which it allegedly monetizes for advertising purposes.

The Facebook class action lawsuit alleges the Android vulnerability was patched in October 2017.

Williams, Brumfield and Burnett all allege they installed Facebook Messenger and Facebook Lite apps on their Android smartphones prior to October 2017. They each say they granted permission for the apps to access their “Contact List,” but they did not understand that the apps would scrape their call and text logs, the Facebook class action lawsuit says.

If they knew that the Facebook apps would scrape call and text logs, they likely would not have installed Facebook Messenger or Facebook Lite on their Android smartphones, or they would have used the apps on different terms, the plaintiffs allege.

Williams, Brumfield and Burnett filed the Facebook class action lawsuit on behalf of themselves and a proposed Class of people in the United States who installed Facebook Messenger and Facebook Lite apps for Android and granted Facebook permission to access their “Contact List.”  Williams and Brumfield also seek to represent a New York subclass.

The plaintiffs have asserted claims for violation of the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, California’s Unfair Competition Law, California’s Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, California’s Constitutional Right to Privacy, Intrusion Upon Seclusion, Trespass to Personal Property, and Deceptive Acts or Practices under New York law.

The Facebook class action lawsuit is seeking compensatory, statutory and punitive damages. The plaintiffs are also seeking an injunction that will require Facebook to purge all of the call and text logs it has acquired through its Facebook Messenger and Facebook Lite apps.

Williams, Brumfield and Burnett are represented by L. Timothy Fisher and Scott A. Bursor of Bursor & Fisher PA.

The Facebook Messenger Call History Collection Class Action Lawsuit is Anthony Williams, et al. v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 3:18-cv-01881-MEJ, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Dec. 6, 2018, a federal judge told Android users who filed a class action lawsuit that they need to explain specifically which permissions were granted before Facebook allegedly gathered data.

UPDATE 2: On May 23, 2019, Facebook asked a California federal court to dismiss a class action lawsuit that claims its Messenger app gathers user data, insisting that the plaintiffs failed to show any real injury.

UPDATE 3: On Aug. 29, 2019, a federal judge decided that Facebook must face a class action alleging that the Messenger app records call and text logs of Android users.