Facebook Class Action Says Cambridge Analytica Scandal Caused Actual Damages

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

A Facebook class action lawsuit claims that the Cambridge Analytica scandal caused actual damages to users.

The class action lawsuit filed against Facebook says that much of the company’s value is drawn from the vast amounts of data collected and stored about the people who use the site since Facebook currently does not charge users of the site a membership fee.

According to the Facebook data class action lawsuit, the social media company should not be allowed to profit from actions that leaked personal information of users when there should have been protocols in place to prevent the breach in the first place, including advertising profits the company obtained.

“As a result of the aforesaid breaches of Facebook’s agreements with Plaintiffs and members of the proposed class, those Facebook users have been harmed and have suffered damages, both by way of dissemination of their personal information and by losing the sales value of that information, in amounts to be proven at trial,” the Facebook data class action lawsuit states.

The Facebook data class action lawsuit calls attention to the fact that there are both privacy and user agreement policies that have garnered attention from the Federal Trade Commission.

Although the data breach that prompted this lawsuit occurred recently, the roots of the data breach go back even further.

In 2014, an app developer reportedly gained access to the data portfolios of 70 million different Facebook users in the U.S. That information was then sold a few times to other companies until an affiliate, Cambridge Analytica, obtained it.

The Facebook data class action lawsuit claims that Cambridge Analytica intended to used that data to influence voting in U.S. elections.

The Facebook data class action lawsuit says that Facebook is not only responsible for weak security that allowed the original developer to gain access to this data, but also for failing to take any further steps to block access to that same data.

The Facebook data class action lawsuit argues that the consumers affected by the data breach should be entitled to those profits obtained by Facebook. The class action lawsuit also says that the company is responsible for violating the Stored Communications Act.

The plaintiffs are bringing the Facebook data class action lawsuit on behalf of themselves and Class Members whose data was accessed in the scandal by any third parties.

The class action claim argues that Facebook is responsible for breach of contract as a result of the user agreements that existed between a person with a profile on Facebook and the company.

The Facebook class action lawsuit says that consumers exchanged personal data with the site under the condition that this information would be protected via the user agreement.

The Facebook class action lawsuit includes other claims against Facebook, including breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, violation of California’s Unfair Competition law, and unjust enrichment.

The class action lawsuit seeks Class certification, punitive damages, statutory damages, an award for attorneys’ fees and costs, an order mandating that Facebook pay interest on amounts awarded, and an order enjoining Facebook from continued business practices that the Class Members argue are deceptive.

The plaintiffs are represented by Shana E. Scarlett of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.

The Facebook Data Class Action Lawsuit is Scott McDonnell, Tabiella Holsinger, and James Tronka v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 3:18-cv-5811, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.

UPDATE: On Feb. 1, 2019, a federal judge is questioning the strength of Facebook users’ arguments in a class action lawsuit alleging the social networking website shared private user data with third parties. The judge states that Facebook’s disclosures about how data is captured and used are “quite vague,” however, he also says the claims of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are also relatively “bare.”