Facebook Users Accuse Social Networking Site Of Reading Private Messages
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)—A heated debate about the privacy of Facebook may soon be heard in a courtroom.
Michael Hurley and Matthew Campbell, of California, have filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook on December 30, 2013.
Hurley and Campbell accuse that Facebook "has systematically violated consumers' privacy by reading its users' personal, private Facebook messages without their consent."
The lawsuit also states that, "the right of privacy is a personal and fundamental right in California and the United States."
Therefore, the plaintiffs want Facebook to pay each member of the class action lawsuit "$100 a day for each day of violation or $10,000."
Hurley and Campbell say that the social networking site is "representing to users that the content of Facebook messages is "private" creates an especially profitable opportunity for Facebook, because users who believe they are communicating on a service free from surveillance are likely to reveal facts about themselves that they would not reveal had they known the content was being monitored."
A Facebook spokesperson told the Huffington Post, "The complaint is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously."
