Facebook Settles Major Privacy Lawsuit

Friday, September 18, 2009

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook has agreed to settlement terms in a class action lawsuit against the company’s controversial Beacon program.

As you may remember, Beacon advertising launched in late 2007 and was designed “allow” users to share information on the products or services they purchased from some 40-partner websites.

Almost immediately, however, the program was overcome by complaints and negative press as it began to appear the sharing wasn’t so much voluntary or limited to Facebook users for that matter.

In a class action suit filed in August last year, plaintiffs alleged Facebook and Beacon partner sites violated a number of state and federal privacy laws.  According to terms of the settlement, which is still pending final approval, Facebook will shut down Beacon and has agreed to set aside $9.5 million to, “to create a foundation to fund products that promote online privacy, safety and security.”