Summary:
In March 2010, Judge Richard Seeborg issued an order approving the class settlement in Lane v Facebook, Inc. This lawsuit charged that users' private information was being posted on Facebook without their consent using Facebook's Beacon program.
Allegations:
- Plaintiff Sean Lane represented the class of Facebook users who had visited the Beacon sites before December 2007, when Facebook instituted new privacy controls. The plaintiffs in this case claimed that Beacon had breached several federal and state privacy laws through allowing users' private information, obtained from third-party websites to be posted on Facebook without consent.
Defence:
- Facebook agreed to a cash settlement fund of $9.5 million which was used to establish and operate a privacy foundation devoted to funding and sponsoring programmes designed to educate users.
- The social network also had to terminate the Beacon program, pay notice and administrative fees, compensate the class representatives and pay Attorneys' fees and expenses.