Right before Facebook launched its ballyhooed but disappointing Initial Public Offering (IPO), the social media behemoth got whacked with a behemoth class-action suit over its privacy practices.

 

Via The Telegraph:

 

Facebook hit with $15bn privacy lawsuit ahead of stock market debut

The company is being sued for $15bn – almost as much as the $16bn raised in its record breaking initial public offering – for tracking users against their wishes, even after they have logged out of their Facebook accounts.

The lawsuit, filed [Friday] in a Federal Court in San Jose, California, combines 21 separate cases across the US and could have far-reaching ramifications for the social network at a critical time.

 

The  Sneak ADtackniks aren’t saying this lawsuit caused Facebook’s anemic opening stock performance, but given GM’s junked Facebook ad campaign – along with critical comments from marketing executives (Telegraph: “Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the world’s biggest advertising group, WPP, has said he has ‘fundamental’ doubts over whether Facebook provides the right ‘context’ for ads”) – you have to wonder if the current climate is the right “context” for an IPO.

 

As in, Individual Privacy Offender.

 

 

 

 

John R. Carroll is media analyst for NPR's Here & Now and senior news analyst for WBUR in Boston. He also writes at Campaign Outsider and It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.
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