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Two Facebook users claim in a new antitrust class action lawsuit that the social media giant intentionally misleads the public about its data privacy protections to attract consumers and solidify the platform’s “utter domination” of the social media market.
Facebook promises to protect user data, but actually mines it for information about other social media outlets as part of an ongoing “copy, acquire or kill” campaign to rid it of any competition, the class action lawsuit claims. In so doing, the company essentially uses consumers’ information against them by eliminating free and fair competition and consumer choice, the plaintiffs’ legal team is arguing.
If not for Facebook’s antitrust practices, there would be more social media platforms to choose from, the class action lawsuit claims.
On those grounds, Facebook users Maximilian Klein of Vermont and Sarah Grabert of Illinois filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Dec. 3. They claim Facebook has violated interstate trade and commerce laws and engaged in unjust enrichment.
They are seeking the Court’s approval of their lawsuit as a class action, granting Klein and Grabert the power to represent a nationwide Class of other Facebook users that could number in the tens of millions, at least.
“Facebook commands 2.47 billion daily active users and 3.14 billion monthly active users … [but] did not, as it would have the public believe, obtain market dominance based on innovation and fair competition,” the proposed class action lawsuit says. “Instead, Facebook has used its behemoth-status as a weapon to clear the field of any and all competitors that threaten to take away market share.”
The company’s claims to offer data privacy and protection to its users is the vehicle by which Facebook has attracted consumers, the class action lawsuit states. It was one of the deciding factors in both Klein and Grabert themselves choosing to join Facebook, they say.
Once on board, Facebook’s continuously evolving algorithms and analytics monitor that very user data for information about other social media platforms that might give it some competition, the class action lawsuit alleges.
“Equipped with the valuable user data it led consumers to believe it was not gathering and would not use in this way, Facebook targeted its users’ preferred alternatives for destruction,” the class action lawsuit states. “Facebook made clear that it would copy incipient competitors’ innovations and discriminatorily shut off these firms’ access to Facebook’s valuable user data if they did not sell their businesses to Facebook first.
“The message to its competitors was explicit: sell at a bargain, or Facebook will go into ‘destroy mode.’”
Facebook acquired the web analytics firm Onavo in 2013 and put the Israeli company to work analyzing Facebook’s trove of user private data, including records of usage of other applications, to identify possible competitors, the class action claims.
Klein and Grabert want the federal court to deem Facebook’s actions in violation of federal and California antitrust laws and to order it to stop its allegedly deceptive practices regarding data privacy.
They also want the court to require Facebook to hire a third-party auditor to evaluate the company’s “data privacy practices, commercial surveillance, and acquisition conduct” and to remedy any problems the auditors report.
Additionally they are asking the Court to order Facebook “to divest assets, such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and its Onavo technology, that tend to substantially entrench Facebook’s monopoly power in a timely and complete manner.”
Do you have a Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp account? Were you attracted to the platform because the company led you to believe it offered the highest level of data privacy and protections? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Lead plaintiffs Klein and Grabert and the proposed Class Members are represented by Adam B. Wolfson, Stephen A. Swedlow, Kevin Y. Teruya and Brantley I. Pepperman of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Warren Postman, Jason Ethridge, Ashley Keller and Benjamin Whiting of Keller Lenkner LLC.
The Facebook Data Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is Maximilian Klein, et al. v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 5:20-cv-08570, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.
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80 thoughts onFacebook Users Say Platform Misleads on Data Privacy to Dominate the Market
Please add me. You’re able to buy things on there and can put your financial information and obviously your friends and family are listed on there as well as details, sometimes very personal, about your life with the assurance that there is the upmost protection to your account.
Please add me
I have Facebook and Instagram accounts. Please add me.
Yes. Please add me.
If possible, please add me.
Please add me
Add me please
I thought it was safe. Please add me.
Please add me to this Class Action lawsuit regarding Facebook. Thank you.
Add me please, i used to use facebook everyday but rarely use it now due to annoyint adds and privacy issues