Ninth Circuit Revives Class Action Suit Against Facebook For Selling Users' Browsing History

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's dismissal of class action privacy claims alleging that Facebook used website plug-ins to track users' browsing histories when they visit third-party websites and then complied those histories into personal profiles sold to advertisers.

The Ninth Circuit held that users had a reasonable expectation of privacy once they logged-out of the social network. The court also refused to dismiss claims that Facebook's tracking and collection practices may have violated the wiretap act, explaining that while the statute insulates from liability a person who is a "party" to a communication, Facebook should not be deemed a party to the communication of a URL sent by the user's browser to third party sites they visited.