COLORADO – In the wake of last month’s announcement of a security breach impacting Facebook users, Frank Azar & Associates announced they’re suing the social media company.
The suit filed by the firm, based in Denver, seeks class action status on behalf of two plaintiffs in Colorado, others in California and New Jersey, and “all Facebook users whose private information was compromised by the massive data breach.” The case was filed last week in the Northern District of California.
On September 25, Facebook officials said their engineering team found a security issue that potentially impacted up to 50 million users as code was exploited using the “View As” feature which lets you see what a profile looks like to others.
A follow-up blog post by the company announced hackers had accessed 29 million accounts after getting an access token for each profile. Breaking it down further, Facebook officials said 14 million of those accounts had detailed information, such as their hometown, birthdate, most recent searches and most recent check-ins stolen.
Anyone impacted by the security breach was notified via message. Anyone who was concerned they may have been impacted was directed to this help page – https://www.facebook.com/help/securitynotice –for more information.
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs claim Facebook knew about the breach two weeks prior to the public announcement. Their lawsuit takes aim at how the social media giant protects users’ data from identity theft and other cyber crimes.
In a traditional lawsuit, one party sues another claiming wrongdoing. A class action suit is brought forward by an attorney or attorneys representing more than one client, some of which may not be present for the proceedings. If a class action lawsuit is successful, people who have filed a claim are only eligible to take part.
Facebook which is based in Menlo Park, California has more than 2.23 billion monthly active users and brought in more than $40 billion in revenue in 2017.
CASE FILED IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA: King et al. v. Facebook, Inc., Case No. 3:18-cv-06246
