Facebook hit with class action lawsuit over mobile call and text data
John Condelles III installed two Facebook apps on the Android phone he purchased in 2016. Now he's suing the social network for its alleged collection of information on calls and text messages on all Android phones with a Facebook app installed.
Filed in federal court in California, the class action lawsuit seeks to hold Facebook liable for allegedly violating the privacy of all Android users who installed a Facebook app while the data collection occurred.
The plaintiff doesn't know the exact numbers of class members joining the lawsuit because Facebook is in "exclusive control" of this information" but he believes there could be millions, the filing says.
The suit comes as Facebook tries to recover from an uproar over its handling of personal data. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress in April to answer questions about data collection after reports revealed that a data firm had improperly accessed the data of 87 million Facebook users.
Condelles is the primary plaintiff and his lawyers argue that Facebook never made it clear to users that the apps would scrape the data, which they say included metadata about calls and texts such as the recipients of text messages, and the time and duration of phone calls
"Facebook has collected and stored information in a scope and manner beyond that which users knowingly authorized. The practice is ongoing," the filing claims.
It adds, "The terms of service and privacy notice materials do not inform (and in the past have not informed) the ordinary and reasonably attentive Facebook user that installing the application on a mobile device will result in the logging of all the user's phone and text communications."
Facebook declined CNET's request to comment on the lawsuit.
This article was originally published in CNET.