The largest class action against the social media giant has begun, gaining the support of over 60,000 Facebook users and is expected to investigate the company’s connection to the draconian PRISM surveillance programme.
Speaking to the media, Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, said: “Our aim is to make Facebook finally operate lawfully in the area of data protection”, he explains. “We are only claiming a small amount as our primary objective is to ensure correct data protection.”
“For this lawsuit we have chosen basic or obvious violations of the law: The privacy policy, participation in the PRISM program, Facebook’s graph search, apps on Facebook, tracking on other web pages (e.g. via the ‘like buttons’), ‘big data’ systems that spy on users or the non-compliance with access requests.”
The main plaintiff in the suit wants Facebook to pay out €500 in damages to each supporter of the class action
Vienna Regional Court has now given Facebook Ireland four weeks to respond.
The report states:
“The first step in the legal procedure is hereby taken. Facebook Ireland may be able to get an extension of this time limit of additional four weeks. If Facebook Ireland would refuse to submit a counter-statement the court would be able to make a judgement in absence based on the lawsuit.”