{"id":26671,"date":"2012-11-16T09:03:32","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T07:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=26671"},"modified":"2012-11-16T15:42:22","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T13:42:22","slug":"facebook-makes-second-attempt-to-settle-privacy-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/26671\/facebook-makes-second-attempt-to-settle-privacy-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook makes second attempt to settle privacy case"},"content":{"rendered":"

A U.S. judge said he would consider whether to preliminarily approve Facebook<\/a>‘s second attempt to settle allegations the social networking company violated privacy rights.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg rejected a proposed class action settlement over Facebook’s ‘Sponsored Stories’ advertising feature. But at a hearing on Thursday in San Francisco federal court, Seeborg was much less critical of a revised proposal and promised a ruling “very shortly.”<\/p>\n

Five Facebook Inc members filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against the social networking site, saying its Sponsored Stories feature violated California law by publicizing users’ “likes” of certain advertisers without paying them or giving them a way to opt out. The case involved over 100 million potential class members.<\/p>\n

As part of a proposed settlement reached earlier this year, Facebook agreed to allow members more control over how their personal information is used. Facebook also agreed to pay $10 million for legal fees and $10 million to charity, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

However, Seeborg rejected the proposed deal in August, questioning why it did not award any money to members.<\/p>\n

In a revised proposal, Facebook and plaintiff lawyers said users now could claim a cash payment of up to $10 each to be paid from a $20 million total settlement fund. Any money remaining would then go to charity.<\/p>\n

The company also said it would engineer a new tool to enable users to view any content that might have been displayed in Sponsored Stories and then opt out if they desire, the court document says.<\/p>\n

In court on Thursday, Facebook attorney Michael Rhodes said the settlement provided meaningful protections and that Seeborg’s job was to ensure a fair settlement – not write national privacy policy.<\/p>\n

“Trust me, I’m not proposing to set grand policy with privacy issues writ large,” Seeborg said.<\/p>\n

Two children’s advocacy groups filed court papers opposing the deal, saying that an opt-in procedure with parental consent should be required before Facebook can use a minor’s content in ads.<\/p>\n

However, plaintiff attorney Robert Arns said the deal balances the public good with Facebook’s ability to run a profitable social networking service.<\/p>\n

“We believe we cracked the code so that it’s fair,” he said.<\/p>\n

If Seeborg grants his preliminary approval, outside groups would be able to file further objections before a final hearing.<\/p>\n

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Facebook and Internet addiction<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A U.S. judge said he would consider whether to preliminarily approve Facebook’s second attempt to settle allegations the social networking company violated privacy rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[25,45,1127],"class_list":["post-26671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-active","tag-facebook","tag-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26671"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26748,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26671\/revisions\/26748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}