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Facebook and Instagram Developers Sued for Privacy Violations In U.S. and UK

By Alaina Lancaster
September 01, 2020

Facebook filed two separate lawsuits in the UK and U.S. that the company says is part of an ongoing effort to hold developers that abuse its platform accountable.

One lawsuit, filed in the United Kingdom's High Court of Justice, alleges that Fatih Haltas, founder of England-based digital marketing companies MobiBurn and OakSmart Technologies, failed to comply with Facebook's audit request after he allegedly gathered user data by paying app developers to install a "malicious" software development kit in their apps that would mine devices and social media accounts. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Facebook Inc. and Facebook Ireland.

Facebook's attorneys at White & Case allege that Haltas violated the platform's terms of service by selling Facebook data such as users' name, location, email address and gender, as well as "directly or indirectly transferring data obtained from Facebook to data monetisation services" as far back as April 2018.

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