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Blue Hog’s Matt Campbell Suing Facebook Over Privacy Terms

1 min read

Likely to be buried in the Page One profile of Blue Hog Report blogger Matt Campbell is a tidbit we share here instead: The Little Rock lawyer is the lead named plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against Facebook.

He tells Whispers that he’s not handling any of the legal work on the case, which was filed way back in December 2013 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Campbell adds that all he can really say about it is that the case has survived Facebook’s motion to dismiss and that discovery is underway.

The lawsuit claims that Facebook is violating users’ privacy by reading their private messages without their consent. “When a user composes a Facebook message and includes a link to a third party website (a “URL”), the Company scans the content of the Facebook message, follows the enclosed link, and searches for information to profile the message-sender’s web activity,” the suit says.

The social network sells this data to advertisers and others, the suit says.

This practice isn’t disclosed to Facebook users, the suit alleges, nor are these scans undertaken with the users’ consent.

Campbell’s lawsuit was consolidated with a similar complaint in April 2014. On May 26, Campbell and the other two lead plaintiffs — from Oregon and California — agreed to meet with a mediator by Aug. 24.

Carney Bates & Pulliam PLLC of Little Rock is representing Campbell.

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