A Civil Lawsuit in California was filed alleging Facebook violates California and online privacy laws by relaying user information to third parties and engaging in data mining and harvesting without full disclosure to the users.

Facebook has had some privacy issues in the past.  Let’s say you’re having some emotional trouble, and decide to buy a self-help book on Amazon.  After all, who wants to walk into Borders and have people witness your purchase of Faking It: How to Seem Like a Better Person Without Actually Improving Yourself?  Plus, we all know books on Amazon are cheaper.  Great.  Now your entire Facebook friends list can see your purchase in their News Feed.  Well, this happened to many people in late 2007.  In addition, those who were not Facebook members still had their information sent to Facebook for “research purposes” by use of the controversial Beacon advertising system.  Amazon is not the only culprit in bed with Facebook.  There’s an entire orgy of privacy violations that included Blockbuster, Fandango, and Overstock.  If you wanted to surprise your honey with that necklace that Overstock hottie, Sabine Ehrenfeld was wearing, too late!  Now she knows, thanks to her News Feed!  Here’s to hoping your honey is your spouse as well.  That could open up an entirely different can of worms.

I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook is a stalker – a stalker with a dream to one day know every move everyone he knows makes.  Behold: Facebook.  Well, now that we’ve all joined Facebook and have come accustomed to airing our lives, including dirty laundry (and I am no exception) out to the world, we’ve all become nosy addicts.  I’m sure there’s some guy eating Cheetos in his basement on a bean bag chair who is diligently refreshing is News Feed for days on end in hopes it says So-and-So is now single.  Score!  If you think that’s a joke, have one of your female friends change their relationship status as a joke and just watch as all of her secret admirers come out of the woodwork.  Actually, that’s probably a bad idea.  No need to ruin relationships once her boyfriend finds out the guy who’s “like a brother to her” has been awaiting the day she is single so he can profess his undying love and affection for her.

If this happened to you or someone you know, I’d love to hear the story.