Litigation

Lawsuit Charges FaceBook With Violating California Privacy Law

By Bruce Nye

    Mark Lanier, one of the most successful plaintiff's toxic tort and drug lawyers in the country (and a really skilled trial lawyer who is generally despised by American business) is going after Facebook.  He's representing five plaintiffs, a diverse group including a photographer, a model and actress, two minors and a college student  in Orange County, California.  The case is basically a privacy case, based on Article 1, Section 1 of the California Constitution, The Consumer Legal Remedies Act, Civil Code sections 1750 et seq., Civil Code section 3344, and, of course, our old friend the Unfair Competition Law, Business & Professions Code section 17200 et seq.  Legal Newsline has the story here.  Wall Street Journal's Law Blog has it here, including the Complaint. 

    Still, I'm skeptical.  I can understand the deal with the photographer and model/actress.  But I didn't think minors and college students used FaceBook anymore.  I thought it had been taken over by my generation.

Update:  There's a great compilation of press quotes about this at Kashmir Hill's The Private Parts ("Facebook privacy lawsuit tried by the press. Found lacking.")  My favorite quote is from MSNBC.com's Technotica:

Frankly kids, suing Facebook for violating your privacy is like going to a kegger at the Devil?s house, then waking up on the front lawn the next day hung over, naked, missing your soul ?and surprised.

Full post as published by CalBizLit on August 19, 2009 (boomark / email).