Everyone has a Facebook account, but not many people care to notice what goes on behind the scenes of their beloved social media website. In recent months, Facebook has been under a lot of heat regarding their privacy policies. On January 1st, 2015, Facebook changed their Terms of Conditions. Most batted a blind eye. However, beneath the clever wording and political rightness, there was something very scary to be found.
In this updated policy, Facebook stated that by accepting to their agreements, the user is agreeing to allow Facebook to share their private information to third party sources such as the FBI, CIA, NSA and any business man looking to pay for a client database.
Due to this breach of users' privacy, Max Schrems, an Austrian lawyer and founder of the group, "Europe versus Facebook", filed a Lawsuit last August.
With many hopping on this bandwagon of justice and civilian awareness, Schrems has amassed 25,000 users across Europe, Asia and Latin America to help him corner Facebook.
"The hearing on April 9 will consider the admissibility of the lawsuit," said Beatrix Engelmann to AFP. Named as the largest lawsuit in history, Facebook will have quite a load to handle in order for their popularity to stay afloat.
Schrems claims that Facebook's policy is in direct violation of the European data protection law, which was signed in 2012 to combat these issues. Schrems also claims that Facebook is working with the NSA's PRISM program, which the brave Edward Snowden revealed to the public. The NSA's PRISM surveillance program collects data on social media, CCTV cameras and any kind of records to archive data and store it for their personal uses.
Facebook, however, is keeping very silent about this issue, stating that it cannot be sued by its users. Europe vs. Facebook's lawyer, Wolfram Proksch, said that Facebook's arguments are "bizarre."
If this lawsuit were to go the people's way, Facebook could be paying each supporter of the class action $500 in compensation.
