Many Facebook users put so much faith into the megalithic social networking site that a false belief of privacy and security is instilled in their minds. Many users post private information on Facebook that they might not normally share with a casual friend, yet the ease of sharing fosters an addictive desire to contribute content within the popular internet site. Max Schrems, an Austrian law student, feels that posting private information is bad enough, and believes the information Facebook shares behind the scenes is worthy of a class action lawsuit.
A report on the Facebook class action lawsuit, as told by The Telegraph , states:
“Austrian campaigner Max Schrems billed it as a David and Goliath lawsuit against the web giant claiming damages of 500 euro per supporter for alleged data protection violations, including over the US Prism spy programme.”
A portion of the class action lawsuit is aimed at Facebook Ireland, where the site tracks external internet sites by using the “like” buttons, which is illegal in Ireland. There are also complaints of over 20 data breaches involving Facebook.
Max Schrems explained the monetary rewards that are being sought from Facebook’s lack of attention, according to European privacy laws:
“We are only claiming a small amount, as our primary objective is to ensure correct data protection. However, if many thousands of people participate we would reach an amount that will have a serious impact on Facebook.”
With over 1.32 billion users, Facebook has the monumental task of securing and maintaining the privacy data of a large percentage of the world’s population. Max Schrem is seeking the U.S. equivalent of around $670 per user that joins the class action lawsuit. If every Facebook user were to join in on the class action lawsuit, and Schrem wins his requested compensation, Facebook would owe approximately $884.4 billion U.S. dollars. Although it is unlikely that such an amount would be rewarded overall, the financial blow to Facebook could be dire and result in a possible shut down of the site altogether.
Max Schrem has claimed that he will not be compensated from each individual that signs up for the class action lawsuit, but will instead take in an equal share of each person that participates.
Facebook has declined to respond to the class action lawsuit at this time. However, it is important to note that Facebook does allow the user to be in control of almost all of the personal data stored on servers, providing the means to hide personal information from those an individual deems not worthy.
[Photo Courtesy: Blue Light Marketing ]