On Friday the Europe vs Facebook privacy campaign group kicked off a new legal initiative targeting Facebook – in the form of a class action lawsuit that’s inviting adult non-commercial Facebook users located anywhere outside the US and Canada to join in.
Today, the group told TechCrunch its civil action has pulled in some 11,000 participants so far, in the first weekend since launch. The largest proportion of participants (about 50%) are currently coming from German-speaking countries, followed by “high number” from the Netherlands, Finland and the UK.
“Reasonable numbers come from all European countries and South America,” added a Europe vs Facebook spokesperson.
Specifically, the class action is targeting the following “unlawful acts” on the part of Facebook — as the group sees it:
Data use policy which is invalid under EU law
The absence of effective consent to many types of data use
Support of the NSA’s ‘PRISM’ surveillance programme
Tracking of Internet users on external websites (e.g. through ‘Like buttons’)
Monitoring and analysis of users through ‘big data’ systems
Unlawful introduction of ‘Graph Search’
Unauthorised passing on of user data to external applications
The suit has been brought at the Commercial Court for Vienna against Facebook’s Irish subsidiary. The claimant is Viennese lawyer and data privacy activist Max Schrems, who heads up the Europe vs Facebook group. Schrems will be the sole claimant named, meaning there are no risks that others participating in the action will need to pay any associated costs. The suit is being financed by Austrian law firm ROLAND ProzessFinanz AG — which will net a fifth (20%) of any winnings, as the legal funding provider.
Damages are being set deliberately low, at what Europe vs Facebook describes as “a token €500 per user”. But obviously if enough participants join in the cumulative impact could be considerably more substantial. Indeed, with the current 11,000-strong participation the damages could amount to up to €5.5 million.
“We are only claiming a small amount, as our primary objective is to ensure correct data protection. However, if many thousands of people participate we would reach an amount that will have a serious impact on Facebook’,” said Schrems in a statement.
The class action requires participants to actively come forward to be part of the suit, although they can join at any time. Europe vs Facebook has create a mobile-friendly website where people can input the details required to join the action.
The process requires potential participants to sign in with their Facebook credentials, to verify they have an account and that they qualify to join, and then provide certain additional details — such as their address, birth date (to verify they are an adult) and to upload a scan of a government issued identity document such as a passport.
It’s a straightforward process to step through but does require a degree of effort, given the requirement to upload an identity document scan — so pulling in 11,000 participants in a few days is pretty impressive.
— source techcrunch.com