Canadian Court Certifies Facebook Class Action Over 'Sponsored Stories'

The British Columbia Supreme Court recently certified a class action against Facebook in connection with its Sponsored Stories program. Under that program, advertisers paid Facebook for Sponsored Stories, which would in turn generate ads featuring a user's name and profile picture based on which products and companies the user "liked." We previously analyzed a California privacy class action brought over the program. Since the publication of our previous article, the California court granted final approval to a $20 million settlement that required Facebook to make small payments to class members. That settlement is currently being challenged in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by a public interest group.