17,000 Facebook users join Austrian law student's class action privacy suit

[thelakelander]

Facebook Inc. is being sued over its privacy policies and more than 17,000 global users have joined the class action lawsuit, Reuters reported.

Max Schrems, the Austrian law student who filed the claim in Vienna's commercial court, is asking Facebook to pay 500 Euros ($670) per person in damages. Facebook has been sued before over myriad privacy issues, such as collecting data for advertisers, sharing data with the National Security Agency via its PRISM program and using its users as lab rats in a mood study done in collaboration with Cornell University.

Usually it's protected by its terms of service that users sign, agreeing to let Facebook collect and distribute their data. But Schrems is contending that those practices violate people's privacy.

Full article: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2014/08/05/17-000-facebook-users-join-austrian-law-students.html

[JHAT76]

I don't get the people who, especially after all the recent info, expect privacy on a website like Facebook.  Facebook is a business that is all about the advertising.  I know people love to think the internet is free, and everything should be free on it.  If you want privacy don't sign up for Facebook.  Why is that not a simple thing to understand?