Facebook Will Be Sued For Scanning Users' Private Message For Advertising

U.S. District Judge has ruled that that Facebook will have to deal with a class-action lawsuit that alleges that the company violated users privacy laws by scanning their private messages.

The lawsuit, filed in January this year had claimed that the social networking giant scans private messages for links and after finding the website, it bumps up likes of those sites, making Facebook appear more attractive to advertisers.

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California ruled that Facebook had "not offered a sufficient explanation of how the challenged practice falls within the ordinary course of its business."

Facebook, in its defense said the alleged scanning of private messages of users was covered by an exception under the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

Facebook stopped the practice of scanning messages in October 2012, but it still does some analysis of messages to protect against viruses and spam, according to the ruling.

Facebook had a couple of wins in its favor. The judge ruled that one statue did not apply because plaintiffs did not provide sufficient facts to prove that they should have expected their communication would be confidential. Another statue did not apply because they did not allege the loss of money or property.

The case is Campbell v. Facebook Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 13-5996.