Zynga Wins Privacy Court Case

Zynga - maker of Facebook games and now lead by ex-Xbox man Don Mattrick (pictured) - has dodged a legal bullet in the form of a class action suit regarding what it does with its users' data.

According to Reuters, cases against both Facebook and Zynga were consolidated into one in which, "the plaintiffs claimed that when they clicked on a Zynga game or a Facebook ad, advertisers and other third parties received their Facebook IDs and Facebook page address, court filings show."

But no joy was to be had for the people who brought the case, because on Thursday May 8th, "a unanimous three-judge 9th Circuit panel ruled that the plaintiffs could not bring civil wiretap claims against the two companies because the information allegedly disclosed to advertisers did not qualify as the "contents of a communication" under the law."

It ends there for Zynga. However, "plaintiffs can pursue allegations that the information disclosure violated Facebook privacy policies which all users are required to endorse, the court ruled. The 9th Circuit issued that part of its ruling in a separate opinion that cannot be cited as precedent in other cases."

Source: Reuters