Max Schrems, an Austrian law student, on Friday called out billions of Facebook users to support him by joining a class-action lawsuit against Facebook for violating users’ privacy laws.
Schrems has filed a law suit at Vienna’s commercial court and has also invited others to join the action at www.fbclaim.com using their Facebook login.
According to Europe-V-Facebook.org campaign, the Austrian law allows for a group of people to assign their claims to a single person in this case, Schrems, who can sue on their behalf and redistribute any damages awarded. In such a case, legal proceedings are then run as a class action.
Schrems is claiming 500 Euros ($670) per user from Facebook in damages for allegedly violating data privacy policies, including its participation in the US National Security Agency’s Prism surveillance programme aimed at accessing the personal data of Facebook and other web services users, its graph search feature, use of “big data” systems for spying on users as well as company’s non-compliance with EU privacy law.
Schrems is also seeking injunctions under EU data-protection law at the Austria court. Europe-V-Facebook campaign’s main aim is to make Facebook operate lawfully in the area of data protection, he added.
Anyone who’s not from Canada or the US have been urged to come forward and join the Austrian case, as Facebook runs all its international operations, outside of North America, from Ireland.
Schrems has guaranteed that there isn’t any sort of financial risk attached to the campaign, so users signing up need not to worry about any financial issues.
If Schrems loses the case, a specialist financier will bear all the legal expenses, who will also take up 20 percent of the damages if he wins.
Facebook is yet to comment on the report.
