Recently news from Facebook Inc is that it has agreed to pay $9.9 million to charity to settle a lawsuit that accused Facebook of violating users rights to take over the control the use of their own names, photographs and likenesses, according to court documents made public over the weekend. This lawsuit was brought by five Facebook members who alleged that Facebook violated California law by publicizing users “likes” of certain advertisers on its “Sponsored Stories” feature without paying them or giving them a way to opt out, which was mentioned in the documents.
A “Sponsored Story” is an advertisement that appears on a member’s Facebook page and generally consists of another friend’s name, profile picture and an assertion that the person “likes” the advertiser. The settlement was reached last month but made public this weekend. Facebook declined to comment on Saturday.
The proposed class action lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Jose, California, could have included nearly one of every three Americans, with billions of dollars in damages, according to previous court documents.
In the lawsuit, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was quoted as saying that a trusted referral was the “Holy Grail” of advertising.
In addition, the lawsuit cited comments from Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, saying that the value of a “Sponsored Story” advertisement was at least twice and up to three times the value of a standard Facebook.com ad without a friend endorsement.
US District Judge Lucy Koh said the plaintiffs had shown economic injury could occur through Facebook’s use of their names, photographs and likenesses.
“California has long recognised a right to protect one’s name and likeness against appropriation by others for their advantage,” Koh wrote.
The case in US District Court, Northern District of California is Angel Fraley et al, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated vs. Facebook Inc.
