BALTIMORE, May 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On Friday, May 18, 2018, Murphy, Falcon &
Murphy, together with Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr and Goldstein,
Borgen, Dardarian & Ho, filed a national class action lawsuit
against Facebook, Inc., Cambridge Analytica LLC, and SCL Group,
Ltd. for their combined efforts to unlawfully distribute the
personal information of up to 87 million Facebook users. That
information contained intimate photographs, sensitive personal
information (including emails, birthdays, and phone numbers) and
extensive lists of friends and contacts. The theft of this
user information began as early as 2014 – and continued well into
2016. The information was used for advertising purposes,
enriching Facebook and directly benefitting Cambridge Analytica,
SCL and their clients.
This misappropriation of user data was not without
consequence. Various news outlets and media reports have
identified this unlawful taking and misuse of Facebook user data as
one of the factors responsible for the election of the current
President of the United
States.
The events that give rise to the class action lawsuit filed
today arose in 2014 when Cambridge Analytica hired a Cambridge University academic, Aleksandr Kogan, to build a survey application
called "thisisyourdigitallife." In the fine print of the
terms and conditions of the application, users were told that their
data was only going to be used for academic research
purposes. Facebook's own policies barred third party
developers from using data acquired through their applications to
be used for the purposes of advertising.
Unfortunately, Cambridge Analytica had other ideas. It not
only harvested the Facebook data of the roughly 270,000 Facebook
users who had downloaded the "thisisyourdigitallife" application
(on the understanding that their data would only be used for
research purposes), it also harvested the data of their Facebook
friends and contacts – representing up to 87 million additional
Facebook users. Once it had misappropriated the personal
information of almost half of all American Facebook users, it then
used that data to place targeted political advertisements in their
personal Facebook feeds. And while this theft of data
proceeded apace, Facebook undertook no audits and conducted no
oversight of Cambridge Analytica or its parent company SCL.
As a result, up to 87 million Americans had their most personal
data taken and used for purposes to which they never consented and
of which they never approved. Facebook's negligence and
Cambridge Analytica's willful disregard of the terms of the
authorization they had been given by 270,000 Facebook users (to say
nothing of the up to 87 million Facebook users who never downloaded
Cambridge Analytica's thisisyourdigitallife application) are at the
heart of the class action lawsuit filed today.
The whistleblower Christopher
Wylie, formerly of Cambridge Analytica, noted in written
Congressional testimony that "Facebook was first notified of
C[ambridge] A[nalytica]'s harvesting scheme in 2015. It did
not warn users then, and it only took action [after the truth
became publicly known." He went on to warn, "What I bore
witness to at Cambridge Analytica should alarm everyone.
Cambridge Analytica is the canary in the coal mine to a new Cold
War emerging online."
As Will Zerhouni, partner of
Murphy, Falcon & Murphy noted, "It is unconscionable that
Facebook would facilitate and Cambridge Analytica would execute a
scheme to harvest the most sensitive and intimate data of up to 87
million Americans without their knowledge, approval or
consent. This unlawful scheme to deny up to 87 million
Americans the privacy that they bargained for was not without
consequence. An American presidential election was directly
affected by these underhanded machinations – and the history of the
world was literally changed as a result."
Zerhouni added, "We will seek to vindicate the privacy rights of
those Americans who trusted Facebook with their data and never
sought to be used as pawns in a larger geopolitical game."
April Falcon Doss, chair of
cybersecurity and privacy at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, added
that the impact of these privacy violations falls equally across
political party lines. "It doesn't matter what your politics
are – every user of Facebook should be appalled by what they've
done. Millions of Americans trust Facebook as a platform to
share the most personal information about their lives: photos of
their children, the status of their relationships, their religious
affiliations, and their political views. When users entrust
their personal information to a large platform provider like
Facebook, they should be able to expect – and demand – that the
company will live up to its own promises regarding data
privacy."
Doss pointed out that, at the time of these events, Facebook was
already subject to oversight by the Federal Trade Commission for
past privacy violations. She added, "Facebook may believe
it's too big to be held to account. We believe that when it
violates its users' trust, it's too big to be let off the
hook."
About Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, P.A.
Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, P.A. is a Baltimore-based law which specializes in
complex civil, criminal and civil rights litigation. Our powerhouse
legal team has a history of unrelenting dedication to its clients
in Baltimore and across the
country. Our team of seasoned trial lawyers have extensive
experience in a wide variety of cases with success rates that dwarf
national averages and are dedicated to providing smart strategies
and creative approaches to complex litigation. Our team is driven
and strategy-focused— characteristics that have helped us secure
more than $700 million in verdicts
and settlements, and our attorneys have won some of the largest
verdicts in high-profile, high-stakes cases in some of the toughest
jurisdictions around the country. Recently, the firm has been
recognized as a national leader in data breach and internet privacy
litigation and in February 2018,
Managing Partner Hassan Murphy was appointed by the United States District Court for the
Northern District of Georgia to be
part of the leadership of the historic Equifax data breach case.
Learn more at www.murphyfalcon.com .
*Each case is different. Past success does not guarantee a
favorable result in any future case.
Contact: Will
Zerhouni
Will.Zerhouni@murphyfalcon.com
(410) 539-6500
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