Legal action launched against Facebook over allegations of sharing user data

A legal action has been launched in California over claims that the social network, Facebook sold users' private messages to advertisers without their consent.

According to the action Facebook misled users into believing they had a secure, private mechanism for communication, when Facebook mined user data and profits from those data by sharing them with third parties.

A spokesman for the social network has contested the claim.

The spokesman said the company believed the allegations were without merit and Facebook would defend itself vigorously.

A US court last month ruled that investors could pursue court action against Facebook over claims that it left material information out of the public documents lodged at the stock exchange ahead of its flotation.

Facebook is being sued over allegations of monitoring private messages on the social network to surreptitiously gather even more information on its users and share the data with marketers.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Jose claims Facebook scanned the contents of private messages including links to other websites "to improve its marketing algorithms and increase its ability to profit from data about Facebook users."

According to the lawsuit, the links to third-party websites were interpreted as a "like" of that website and contributing to a profile of the sender's activity on the web for the purpose of targeting advertising.

According to Jackie Rooney, a spokeswoman for Facebook, the allegations were ''without merit.'' She added Facebook would defend itself vigorously," she said in an emailed statement.

The two plaintiffs were seeking certification of the case as a class action on behalf of all Facebook users who had sent or received a private message in the past two years that included web links.

Hacker News brought to light the practice of recording links in private messages as "likes" in 2012. At the time some questioned whether users understood that links in their messages were being scanned.

Google is one among several Silicon Valley companies targeted by similar lawsuits.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in San Jose in a September ruling said Google would have to face a lawsuit, accusing the tech giant of illegally opening and reading the contents of email sent through its Gmail service in violation of federal wiretapping statutes.