Users

Housing Firms Used Discriminatory Facebook Ad Tool to Exclude Older Tenants: Lawsuit

Lawyers say the housing companies used Facebook’s advertising algorithm to systematically weed out older prospective tenants. In their filings Wednesday, lawyers include examples of allegedly discriminatory Facebook ads alongside screenshots of a feature that shows Facebook users why they are seeing certain ads on the social network. HuffPost Lawyers allege housing ads like this, which were …


Court Rejects Facebook Appeal to Throw Out Facial Recognition Lawsuit

Facebook could face billions of dollars in damagesFacebook’s attempt to throw out a class action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition technology has been rejected. Social media users in the US state of Illinois claimed Facebook illegally collected and stored biometric data for millions of users without their consent through its “Tag Suggestions” feature. A US court of appeal voted 3-0 to …


French Lawsuit Accuses Google of Violating EU Privacy Rules

Associated PressPARIS – A leading French consumer group filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday accusing Google of violating the European Union’s landmark 2018 privacy rules. In its filing in a Paris administrative court, the consumer group UFC Que Choisir is seeking $1,135 in damages for each of the 200 Google users involved so far. The consumer group says Google’s confidentiality rules are …


Facebook Can’t Shake Lawsuit Over Data Breach

Facebook must face a lawsuit stemming from a security lapse that enabled hackers to steal 30 million users’ information, a federal judge has ruled. The ruling, issued Friday by U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup in the Northern District of California, allows Michigan resident Stephen Adkins to proceed with a class-action complaint alleging that Facebook was negligent in its handling of …


Apple Faces Another Lawsuit Over Improper iTunes Data Disclosures

Apple is now facing another lawsuit that pertains to iTunes. Apple is being sued by three iTunes users who allege that Apple disclosed their listening habits to advertisers. The lawsuit alleges that Apple released personal listening information directly to third parties and also granted app developers access to iTunes libraries via the Media Player framework. However, data brokers are said to …


Refunds for 300 Million Phone Users Sought in Lawsuits Over Location-Data Sales

The proposed classes would include all of the four carriers’ customers in the US between 2015 and 2019. Securus’ service relied on data from LocationSmart, a data aggregator that received location information from the carriers. We only share location data with customer consent. We stopped sharing location data with aggregators after reports of misuse.” T-Mobile declined to comment on the …


Web-Enabled Vibrator Class Action Put to Bed

The case against sex toy maker We-Vibe, which agreed to pay out $3.75m for tracking owners’ use, has finally been put to bed, with a judge yesterday signing off the settlement. Earlier this year We-Vibe’s parent company, Standard Innovation, agreed to fork out following a privacy infringement lawsuit, and also said it would ensure that personal information collected from users would be deleted. …


Web Companies Bash Robo-Texting Law

Tech companies are increasingly getting hit with class-action complaints for sending text messages to consumers, according to the trade group Internet Association. The organization, made up of Google, Facebook, eBay and other large Web companies, made that statement in a regulatory filing summarizing a recent meeting between Internet Association officials and Federal Communications Commission …


Apple Fights Class Action Over Address Book Uploads

Apple is urging a federal judge to shut down a false advertising class action brought by iPhone and iPad users who say they were duped into believing that phones would protect their privacy. The company’s request, filed late last week, is the latest development in long-running litigation over allegations that Twitter, Yelp and other app developers uploaded people’s address books. The dispute …


Judge Rejects Google’s Email-Scanning Settlement

A federal judge in San Jose has rejected Google’s proposed settlement with non-Gmail users who claim Google illegally scanned their emails to Gmail users to target them with advertising, Reuters reports. In a decision released Wednesday night, District Judge Lucy Koh said the disclosure requirements were inadequate and the settlement did not include technical changes Google would make to comply …