Google Safari Workaround case inspires campaign to sue Facebook in UK's High Court over Cambridge Analytica app
- Reference: 1604001609
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/29/facebook_you_owe_us_high_court_campaign/
- Source link:
The campaign, "Facebook You Owe Us", is riding on the coat-tails of former Which? director Richard Lloyd's similarly named campaign, "Google You Owe Us", [1]following the latter's victory in the Court of Appeal over its representative action status.
A representative action in the High Court is a close cousin of the US class-action procedure, though there are some legal differences.
The campaign said in a statement: "In 2013 and 2014, thousands of people participated in the thisisyourdigitallife app on Facebook. Facebook allowed this app to harvest the data of the app users' friends without their friends' permission or knowledge, including Alvin Carpio, the representative claimant. By taking data without consent, it is alleged that Facebook failed to meet their legal obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998."
The thisisyourdigitallife app was created by Cambridge Analytica as a data-harvesting exercise, as reported last year when Facebook paid a £500,000 fine to the Information Commissioner's Office while, bizarrely, [2]not admitting liability or guilt . Data harvested from the app's users was then used by the controversial firm to target adverts across social media platforms on behalf of paying political clients. A later ICO investigation found that Cambridge Analytica's sales and marketing spiel [3]vastly outweighed its actual impact .
Nonetheless, the fine provided the legal hook for Facebook You Owe Us. Using Richard Lloyd's so far successful case (Google has the option of taking it to the Supreme Court), the idea is to claim on behalf of "almost a million" people said to be affected by Facebook allowing the Cambridge Analytica app to operate.
The Register understands the campaign is at the earliest stage of taking legal action; namely, sending Facebook a pre-action protocol letter notifying the US company that it intends to sue. It will have to overcome a number of procedural hurdles before any courtroom hearings.
If the campaign is operating in the same way as the Lloyd case – it shares a legal team with him – the lawyers running the case could be in for a bumper payday. The Lloyd case is being bankrolled by Therium Capital Management Ltd, which stands to receive a share of the financial proceeds if Lloyd wins. As Google's barrister, Antony White QC [4]told the High Court in 2018 , in what were ultimately unsuccessful submissions: "The amounts could be very substantial indeed. If there are 4.4 million claimants, each entitled to several hundred pounds, under the current damages-based regime the maximum share is 50 per cent. If 50 per cent were taken by the funder, the amount generated in this action for the funder would be a very substantial sum of money."
The Court of Appeal later ruled that the "representative class" of people [5]had a strong enough collective interest in the case for it to go ahead , irrespective of other considerations.
James Oldnall, managing partner of law firm Milberg London, which acts for representative litigant Carpio, said in a statement: "Cases like Facebook You Owe Us and Google You Owe Us provide consumers with an essential route to redress. The courts are beginning to recognise that personal data has value, and that representative actions are a suitable mechanism to hold companies to account for abusing or misusing that data." ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/02/lloyd_v_google_court_appeal_goahead/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/30/facebook_ends_appeal_against_ico_microfine/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/08/ico_cambridge_seo/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2018/05/23/lloyd_v_google_iphone_cookie_class_action/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/02/lloyd_v_google_court_appeal_goahead/
[6] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Wait, is this some kind of private equity investing in lawsuits?
At least in the US, the legal profession has had the concept of "product development" for a long time. This is usually a matter of coming up with a new legal basis for a class action lawsuit. The problem with these class action lawsuits, from the plaintiff lawyers standpoint, is they don't get paid if they lose. It sounds like someone has come up with a new method to finance these lawsuits such that the plaintiff lawyers still get some money if they lose by agreeing to share their fee if they win. Thus, similar to how company frequently finance new products by selling equity in a separate company set up to develop the new product.
Welcome to the world of class action lawsuits, where extortion can be legal, and the lawyers are usually the only true winners. And yes, I have been part of a plaintiff class "winner" in a number of class action lawsuits (airfare, dram, CD/DVD players, lawn mower engines, etc), and most have had small enough payouts to not be worth the effort to collect.
Class action in the US
Is a windfall for lawyers, in the UK we used to have laws to prevent abuses instead and any court action would be funded by the goverment, so didnt really need class actions but clearly that situation has changed.
Now the law is whatever an affluent victim can afford, so whilst solicitors here want the windfalls the effect is that laws broken that should have prevented FB and CA in this case from acting illegally have not resulted in criminal cases. This is the real issue, namely that the law no longer acts for the benefit of the general public.
Police and Courts are no longer accessible to the majority so where before if they got abused it was dealt with automatically by the state, now somone else gets a lump of cash for something done to others and anyone not represented get nothing.
Not exactly justice when the majority of those that were abused are excluded from compensation and those that were not abused get a sizeable chunk of cash for just doing their jobs. That their should have been a criminal case and these company directors in prison is seemingly ignored in the lust for a cash grab
If third party data was slurped surreptitiously how do the potential claimants know they have a claim? Will it be incumbent on FB to tell them, assuming FB lose?
Wait, is this some kind of private equity investing in lawsuits?
"The Lloyd case is being bankrolled by Therium Capital Management Ltd, which stands to receive a share of the financial proceeds if Lloyd wins."
I didn't just go down the rabbit hole, nor did I wake up in the rabbit hole. In fact, I am both the rabbit and the rabbit hole at the same time.
Nurse, it's time for my medication!