As one of the early proponents of social media, I am a fan of the model. I believe that social sites bring connection to the isolated nature of sitting in front of a computer.
Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest have helped millions to connect with others around the world in ways we never before dreamed possible.
But that's not to say that all social media is good. There is most certainly a dark side.
There are boundaries that should be put in place... lines that should not be crossed... privacy issues that should not be violated.
When those boundaries are breached, those lines are crossed and your privacy is violated, there is only one thing left to do...
Litigate!
Well, my friends. A boundary HAS been breached. A line HAS been crossed. Privacy HAS been violated.
My boundary. My line. And my privacy.
Who committed the heinous crime? None other than the big daddy of social media sites. The Godzilla of "like." The Mothra of "pages." The King Kong of privacy violations.
That is why I am suing Facebook...
Well, I'm not directly suing Facebook.
But I recently received an email stating that I have been named in a class-action suit against the social media Leviathan.
Here is that email:
The suit alleges that certain people and their likenesses were illegitimately used in a "sponsored story" on Facebook prior to December 3, 2012.
I remember this happening because someone messaged me to say that my profile was showing up next to an advertisement on their Facebook feed.
Basically, my face and name was being used to sell someone else's products or services.
Angel Fraley is a member who got ticked off and kicked off a lawsuit which Facebook is likely going to end up paying for.
How much is this going to cost Facebook?
$20 million.
According to the email, the money will be placed into a fund out of which Facebook will pay claims of Class Members who appeared in a sponsored story.
Hey, that's me!
So how much will I get for this?
Well, if I fill out the form in a timely manner, I may be eligible to receive... brace yourself... up to $10.
That's TEN DOLLARS for those of you who prefer that I spell it out.
Yes, I took a few minutes to fill out the form. At this point, I'm curious to see if I actually get a check from Facebook.
Facebook also had their wrist slapped and promised to revise their terms of service to prevent this from happening again.
Thank you, Angel Fraley. From the bottom of my heart.
Are you a part of this class action suit? If so, did you fill out the form? If not, would you be flattered if you had shown up as a sponsored story? Is this a frivolous suit? Is this a frivolous story? Did my headline grab your attention? Are you tired of all these questions?
Please leave your comments below!
I too received this email, but when I saw that the payout was $20 million I knew my portion of that wouldn't allow me to buy a decent lunch so I skipped over the form. Thanks for doing the math to confirm my suspicion.
It certainly seems like a low number.
Jared
I've also been used in sponsored ads according to my friends. But, it's not worth the hassle so, no, I wouldn't sue. Now, if it looked like I was endorsing something that could ruin my rep, that might be a whole 'nuther story! :)
A very enlightening story Joel.
To be honest.... I am not a Frank Kern or Joel Comm so I guess I would be kind of flattered had I featured.
Having said that, had I realised that I would gain just $10 from this action, I could not but notice that the only real winners from this will be the legal teams involved so would probably decline the tediousness of filling out a form!
Take care Joel
Peter
I'm not surprised that you're getting $10. That's worse than the $20 (that's TWENTY, for those prefer I spell) I got from a class action suit against Yahoo some years back for some Yahoo Ad click fraud.
It's the smart lawyer who makes the big bucks. I'm sure she's pocketing 5 to 10 million!
I fully agree with you, Joel. It's a question of principle, not just the money ($10)...
Facebook has indeed become too big, and has begun to act as arrogantly as other big companies, e.g. Microsoft, Google etc.
It will be fun to see if they win. Just as a matter of principle. :-)
Great headline and intro. Definitely sparks curiosity and a need to know more. I hadn't heard of any lawsuit against Facebook before seeing that message.
I hope you get your #10 check. Let us know.
FaceBook can pay $20 million in a heartbeat (although they will try hard not to) and then it's business as usual, selling your private information any way they can.
"If the product is free, then you are the product".
lol Joel! Yes, I got one of these emails too. Don't know what to really think about the 'sponsored' story part of this, but the class action settlement amount is truly laugh worthy.
Nice post Joel ! No, I don't think it's a frivolous suit at all. I love the mighty facebook, and use it for business building....BUT....I do think they play fast and loose with adjusting privacy settings very much in their favour as default (then we have to go down a labyrinth to tweak them back to how WE want them). Also I think to the average facebook user (ie not someone involved with online marketing!) all the sponsored stories and ads can be a somewhat less than transparent. Does the casual social facebook user care....? probably not.
Keep us posted on how it goes!
cheers
Tanya
Looks like people are trying to cash in on your name all over the place Joel. (It's the Chris here who found that site copying yours)
I guess that's one of the prices you have to pay for fame and fortune buddy! lol
I'm generally of the opinion that this suit is frivolous. After all, in order for your photo to appear next to one of these sponsored ads you had to "like" something. We all know that's public and if you don't like it, don't use Facebook.
Wow, I am also suing Facebook. I got that letter, too.
Hey Joel,
Unfortunately I do not form part of this group that's eligable to claim, and won't be able to claim my smashing $10. But hey, I think it's a good move from you to have done this. Cudos to you. :)
I highly suggest all who qualifies under this criteria to claim your 10 bucks just for the sake of claiming. These internet giants already have so much tom, they might as well give back to the community. Even $10 million is nothing than a parking ticket for these guys.
So if not....Why not?? :)
I saw it, and assumed that it was a spam phishing attempt.
Interesting that it may actually be legit. Even more interesting that the "reward" is a whopping ten bones! ;)
I suppose my first questions are how do i find out if my image(s) was used in a promotions and is it a Global or US centric fund and then my next question would be, "Is Facebook taking the p*ss??" $10! Wow that's an insult to injury!
Joel,
although I don't use Facebook that often, it is surely a good way to connect with others in this world. I don't have to login my Facebook account but they will just come to me and try to bring me back through my email all the times.I don't know what will the Social Network development will be tomorrow, but for sure people are drawing close to each other over the internet each and everyday, even they don't often talk to each others face to face.
Hmmm I got that too and $10 was not enough to spark me to fill out a form (additionally they would probably pay me-me instead of company-me and that annoys my accountant). I do think that it is wrong for Facebook to use me to endorse something that I have not expressly said I endorse (liking a page on social media does not constitute an endorsement on my part). I am happy that the lady filed the suit that made that stop but am not interested in being part of litigation.
I got that same notice - I'm suing Facebook, too! Yeehaw.
Wait...what? $10? I'm not sure they can afford that.
Just don't spend that all in one place, Joel. LOL I guess they did a LOT of face pirating. That's your brand! How dare they?
Yes Joel, I received this letter and was quite flattered but I did not respond. I thought of it as a scam and shredded it right away.
Got it. Ignored it. Moved on. Nice story though Joel ;-)
Last year I deleted all of my friends and my photos, including replacing the profile photo with a "speak to the hand" image, because I had a credit verification done and someone came up on there in a multiple question "Which one of these people do you know?" And on that list of four people was someone I ONLY know via Facebook. Then six months later something similar happened with ANOTHER person. I had two accounts, I had thousands of "friends" and now there are none. If I did not need the page to maintain other business pages, they would be closed. And even though I have removed all those people as friends, they still keep asking me to gather friends. It is a huge security issue folks. I guarantee you, mark my words, it will come out that our credit ratings are being in part determined by who we associate with. Everyone remember you heard it here first. No Tort with punitive damages of any significance will ever come against those who have as much money as God. But as soon as that fact gets out, watch the rats run for the water!
This is an abuse as what appears to be happening is whenever someone likes a Page it means they can be featured as liking whatever that Page wants to display as a "sponsored" story. To give a simple exaggerated example, if I click to "Like" Joel Comm's Page and he decided to run a Sponsored story that he approves of the North Korean nuclear weapons tests this could appear as I like the North Korean weapons tests at the top of my friends' FB newsfeeds without me either knowing about it or being asked about it first, or without the Page Owner asking me. It will just be randomly thrown up by Facebook. Who else thinks this is badly wrong?
Not only did I get it, my husband and my teenage daughter got it too. So that makes it a $30 whole bucks! We did fill it out, we wanted to teach the process to our 17 year old as she was confused by the whole thing. Once we explained what FB had done, she immediately was outraged and wanted her, albeit measly, 10 bucks from them.
Funny, every single person I know got the same BS email, even those who have never ever even logged into FB, like all the millions of dummy accounts, of which I have one. So how is this possible, it is simply a ploy by lawyers to initiate a class action suit, but for lawyers it is great, for supposed FB members, a rip off.
I got that form, too and tossed it in the trash. Seemed pointless, I wasn't hurt that I knew of (until I received the email saying that yes, I had in fact, been hurt). What point will be made here? That Google can afford to pay a bunch of people $10 to get us off their back? Pointless.... nice attention grabbing headline though! :)
So... I suppose this means that if anyone wants to use Mark Zuckerberg's photo in an advertisement it will only cost them a $10 fee...
Interesting story, Joel ... kudos to one of a dozen people who actually makes $$$ blogging - Secret: write & blog about how to make $$ blogging.
Very interesting comments. What I gleamed from everyone's reactions to the suite was not if the suit had merit... not whether someone was wronged... Just not enough money going into "your" pocket to get involved.
Post was boring, the comments enlighting.
Never look a gift horse in the mouth. That $10 could buy a weeks food for a 3rd world country family. Why not try to organise that everyone donates there $10 to a charity. At least that way your $10 makes a difference.
If you are playing by someone elses rules make sure you know them!
I realize that the Web and all its' MANY, MANY features and services has been growing link the Wild, Wild, West! Its like a greased pole trying to wrap our arms around it and trying to get a good enough grip long enough to make sensible regulations to it as we go.
although $20 million is more like a Sunday afternoon stroll of shopping at a Farmer's Market, it is putting them and the thousands of others on the Internet that they need to think before they act.
I will be waiting anxiously to see how this comes out.
Never get tired of receiving info from you Joel. Thanks so much for all you put out there and share with us.
That's a nice twist on this, John - only who would want his likeness? Maybe a hoodie company. :-)
I received the notice, and submitted the form too. The "up to $10" surely will be much less, but if Facebook is paying for their blunder I'll take my share. I was part of a class action lawsuit with Google about a year ago and I got a check for3 cents!
Joel,
You are right. We are living in a time when privacy seems to be impossible. It is good to have Social Network in one hand, but it is still another media that will give us trouble as well. Sometimes, even when we just sign up for anything over the internet, all of our information will be sold out to the third unknown party in just a few minutes. By looking at how many spam and junk mails we have already received in every single day, you will know what I mean.
Joel,
I also received this notice. $10 is not worth my time or effort of submitting the form. I am still considering the option to "exclude myself" from the case though. According to the letter "this is the only option that allows you to retain the ability to file your own lawsuit about the legal claims in this case."
I kept seeing an ad for a dating site with the picture of a friend in Wyoming stating that she liked that site.
Maybe she did, maybe she didn't, but she was not exactly thrilled when I sent a screen shot to her.
I guess I am a party pooper, since I don't participate in liking businesses on Facebook.
While we are on the subject, Facebook is putting requests on my page alledgedly from friends wanting to know my birthday. That is a load of crap. Those people have never requested anything from me. Facebook just wants that info for some nefarious use....
Good story. Good luck getting that $10.00 Joel. I don't think it's worth the time to fill out the form. But I do agree it's the principle of the thing.
A very enlightening story Joel......