A lawsuit was recently filed against the social media company Facebook. The lawsuit claimed that the California-based headquarters of the company had access to private information of Facebook Users. This information included the user's browser history even after they had logged out of their Facebook account. The judge was presented with the argument that this violated privacy rights and laws. However, the judge ruled in favor of Facebook and there was no real resolution for the plaintiffs.

Facebook is violating users privacy

The plaintiffs argued that Facebook tracked their browser history even after the users have logged out of their accounts.

They stated that Facebook made use of the "like" button to track other sites the plaintiffs visited. This means that the company could be recording browser history for their own use. The argument was that this was a violation of the users federal and state rights to privacy. They added that it also violated wiretapping laws.

These concerns were first brought to the public's attention by blogger Nik Cubrilovic in 2011. He discovered that the company was tracking user history even after users had opted to log out of their accounts. His discovery was countered by Gregg Stefancik who explained that Facebook uses measures after the user logs out to ensure that other people can not access their account.

The privacy debate has been going on for some years and as of yet, there is no clear resolution.

Judge rules in favor of Facebook tracking

Judge Edward Davila has presented this case. However, he ruled in favor of Facebook and dismissed the concerns of the plaintiffs. The judge stated that Facebook users have many options to hide their browser history from the likes of companies such as Facebook.

He told the plaintiffs that they could have utilized "incognito mode" on their computers.

The judge claimed that the plaintiffs did not have sufficient evidence to take their case any further. He found that they had not suffered any economic harm or loss. He told the plaintiffs that they could not pursue this claim in court again.

However, he did mention that they could pursue a breach of contract claim should they decide to do so. Judge Davila also dismissed another case of the same nature five years ago.

Facebook has introduced ways of allowing users to change their privacy settings. When they introduced a new advertisement scheme in 2014 they introduced new settings so users could personalize their privacy. A spokesperson from the company has stated that they hare very happy with the outcome of the case.