Facebook has a horrible track record when it comes to user privacy. The network has also continued to institute some questionable tactics which has landed them in all sorts of situations ranging from being monitored by watchdog groups to even lawsuits.
One such lawsuit that looked to potentially hurt the site, among others, had to do with Sponsored Stories. To give a quick explanation, Sponsored Stories are ads that appear in the sidebar on Facebook and can have a person’s friend or even themselves appear to be liking a company or page.
The ads raised some red flags and a class action lawsuit that was filed last year which claimed that the ad spots violated users’ rights.
Fortunately, Facebook quickly changed its setup so users can opt out of sponsored stories and prevent themselves from appearing in future ads. Still though, the damage was supposedly already done and now they’ve came back with a new settlement offer of $20 Million.
The agreement puts $10 Million towards plaintiff’s lawyers’ fees and allows for claims up to $10 per Facebook users. The last agreement that was rejected back in August gave no money to users and instead gave $10 Million to various Internet privacy related charities.
A decision should be reached shortly and until then Facebook will likely go back to focusing on its stock prices while attempting to restore investor’s faith in the world’s largest social network.
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