Twitter Class Action Lawsuits
If you or someone you know is a resident of the State of California as of October 27, 2015, and had a Twitter account on or before November 2009, you might want to know the following.
Twitter has been sued, and agreed to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that it violated user’s privacy rights by disclosing the full names provided by users without warning. The lawsuit also alleges that Twitter shared users’ public tweets and public profile information with third parties without providing adequate disclosure, and by failing to adequately inform its users that their tweets would be public by default.
The class action lawsuit was filed by a former Twitter user who opened an account in September 2009. The plaintiff, known as Jane Doe, alleges breach of contract, invasion of privacy, wrongful publication of private facts, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, negligence, misappropriate, and violation of the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, the Online Privacy Protection Act, and the Unfair Competition Law. The lawsuit is captioned Jane Doe v. Twitter Inc., et al., Case No. CGC-10-503630, and is filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Francisco.
Although Twitter has denied the allegations, it has agreed to settle the class action to avoid the expense and uncertainly of ongoing litigation. Those eligible as class members include all persons who were California residents as of October 27, 2015, and who used Twitter on or before November 18, 2009. Twitter has established a fund of approximately $2.7 million. It will not be awarded to class members, but will be distributed to nonprofit organizations in California that promote the causes of education and policy related to online privacy, security, and safety.
The parties have recommended that the settlement be awarded to the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology; Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at Berkeley Law; USC Intellectual Property and Technology Clinic; Santa Clara High Technology Law Institute; American Civil Liberties Union; and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
Class Members who wish to opt out of or object to the Twitter class action settlement must do so no later than March 11, 2016. They can contact;
Jane Doe v. Twitter Settlement Administrator
c/o Gilardi & Co. LLC
P.O. Box 8060
San Rafael, CA 94912-8060
(877) 430-3697
email: info@CATwitterSettlement.com
The website is: www.CATwitterSettlement.com
As recent as September 2015, another lawsuit was filed against Twitter alleging that direct messages on Twitter are not private, and that Twitter converts links in private messages to take advantage of selling advertisement. That lawsuit is below.
Posted on 01/17/2016, in Cases, Cyberharassment, Potpourri and tagged class action, lawsuit, privacy, safety, Twitter. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
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Xena,
Thanks for keeping us updated and informed about happenings in the cyber world.
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Reblogged this on kajubitch.
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Kaju,
Thanks for the reblog.
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Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
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Mr. Militant! Happy to see you. Thanks for the reblog, dear friend.
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As always you keep us up to date on vital issues.
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Mr. Militant, I try but admit that I fail often because there is so much going on, and on different levels.
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Ironically, for many if not most people, the whole point of a Twitter account is for great public visibility. That said, I completely understand why some people and groups want closed accounts and privacy too.
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*greater*
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True, for entertainers, news sources, and celebrities, but I’m not sure if Twitter intended that for the average individual. Most people presume that only those who follow them will tweet to them, and unless they know followers personally or share the same interest, that there will be no exchanges with strangers.
I protected my Twitter account when I opened it. It is to avoid the internet extortionists from engaging me, (although they still, at times, put my handle in their tweets).
I wonder about Twitter’s future. Maybe they need to separate with divisions so those wanting to use it for debate and harassment can open their accounts under “General” and not have access to those under other categories, such as “news,” “entertainment,” “politics,” etc.
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