Commentary

MySpace Sued For Leaking Users' Names To Advertisers

When The Wall Street Journal recently reported that some app developers on Facebook were sending advertisers referrer headers that potentially identified users, some observers criticized the newspaper for not also reporting that the same activity was occurring on corporate sibling MySpace.

No sooner were questions raised than the Journal published an article stating that its investigation revealed that MySpace apps -- including BitRhymes Inc.'s TagMe, WonderHill Inc.'s GreenSpot and RockYou Inc.'s RockYou Pets -- were passing users' IDs to advertisers. Unlike the case with Facebook, MySpace's users' IDs might not expose users' real names because MySpace allows people to use pseudonyms on their public profiles.

Nonetheless, MySpace -- like Facebook and app developer Zynga -- is now facing litigation for allegedly leaking users' names to advertisers. In papers filed with the Central District of California, MySpace user Mitchell Leong alleges that the company broke its promise to users that it wouldn't release personally identifiable information about them to advertisers. As with litigants who are suing Facebook and Zynga, Leong additionally alleges that MySpace is violating various wiretap laws. He is seeking class-action status.

Whether social network users can prove in court that their privacy was violated by MySpace, Facebook or app developers remains to be seen. But even if they can show that their identities were unlawfully revealed, they won't necessarily be able to recover any money -- especially if they can't show they were harmed by the disclosure.

Nonetheless, these types of lawsuits seem to be resulting in settlements. Consider, two recent high profile privacy actions -- against Facebook for the Beacon ad program (which told users about their friends' ecommerce activity) and Google for its launch of Buzz (which initially revealed information about the names of users' email contacts, if users activated Buzz without changing the defaults) -- resulted in settlements of around $9 million. In both cases, however, the settlement agreement provides for cash payments to only a handful of users -- those who are named in the complaints. The vast majority of the settlement money will go to privacy organizations and the class-action lawyers who brought the lawsuits.

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