Duo Files Suit Against Facebook (FB) Over 'Private Message' Scanning

Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) is just about flat in post-holiday trading Thursday amid reports of a new lawsuit against the company.

Reports out Wednesday had Facebook users Matthew Campbell and Michael Hurley filing a suit against the social media juggernaut, alleging that the site was scanning private messages sent by users to sell data to third-party advertisers.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said in part, Contrary to its representations, 'private' Facebook messages are systematically intercepted by the company in an effort to learn the contents of the users’ communications ... This practice is not done to facilitate the transmission of users’ communications via Facebook, but because it enables Facebook to mine user data and profit from those data by sharing them with third parties -- namely, advertisers, marketers, and other data aggregators ... Facebook misleads users into believing that they have a secure, private mechanism for communication -- Facebook’s private messaging function -- when, in fact, Facebook intercepts and scans the content and treats portions of that content no differently than a public 'Like' or post, broadcast openly across the Internet.

The duo are seeking a class-action lawsuit.

While this suit might seem like the first of its kind, we suspect it will fall by the wayside as Facebook probably reports conducting such activity in its pages-long disclosure statement.

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