Judge rules in favour of Facebook tracking logged-out users
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Facebook users aggrieved at being tracked by the social networking giant even after they’d logged out – by pinning responsibility on plaintiffs to keep their own browsing history private.
Judge rules in favour of Facebook tracking logged-out users
The court case was brought by users concerned that by clicking ‘like’ buttons on other websites the Silicon Valley firm would be able to build a picture of an individual’s browsing habits, amounting to a possible infringement of privacy.
In this way anyone sharing external content to their Facebook page, alerting the site to the page in question in addition to the server upon which it is hosted and allowing targeted ads to be pushed to the individual.
Dismissing these concerns out of hand US district judge Edward Davila said that the plaintiffs had failed to show that they ever had a reasonable expectation of privacy in such circumstances, nor had this been detrimental to them economically.
Explaining his judgement Davila said that Facebook’s ‘intrusion’ could have been ‘easily blocked’ by making use of Facebook’s own opt-out tools or activating private browsing… ‘but plaintiffs chose not to do so’. Davila continued: “The fact that a user’s web browser automatically sends the same information to both parties does not establish that one party intercepted the user’s communication with the other.”
None of the plaintiffs can bring privacy or wiretapping claims before the court again although they could pursue a breach of contract claim.