Facebook Cookie Spurs Class-Action Suit

Image via WikipediaThis blog was remiss in not reporting on a class-action complaint filed September 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Davis et al. v. Facebook, Inc. (Case No. 5: 2011cv04834).

The case, reported by Examiner.com and elsewhere, alleges that social media leviathan Facebook violated the Federal Wiretap Act [18 U.S.C. sec. 2511], the Stored Electronic Communication Act [18 U.S.C. sec. 2701] and the Computer Fraud &Abuse Act [18 U.S.C. sec. 1030] when it admitted surreptitiously tracking its members' computer usage after users logged off the social media site.

The 15-page complaint alleges as its class members active Facebook account users for the period from May 27, 2010, through September 26, 2011, when it was first publicized that Facebook purportedly conceded employing cookies to track its users' Internet site visits post-sign-off. Examiner.com reports the plaintiffs have retained Prof. Henry H. Perritt, Jr., author of Law and the Information Superhighway, as an advisor. Related suits have been filed in several other states, including Arizona, Alabama, Illinois and Kentucky.