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Facebook users sue over collection of call, text history

A lawsuit seeking class-action status says a feature that logs calls and texts violated users' privacy.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Steven Musil
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Three users of Facebook's Messenger app filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the social-networking giant, alleging the company violated their privacy by logging the histories of their phone calls and text messages.

The lawsuit was filed after Facebook acknowledged it had been logging some Android users' call and text history, but noting it was with their permission. The feature, which allows Facebook to see when a call or text was sent or received, "has always been opt-in only," Facebook said Sunday.

The lawsuit, filed by three Facebook users in a Northern California federal court, accuses Facebook of violating several state laws and acts, including the California Constitutional Right to Privacy, the Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act.

The lawsuit (see below) seeks class action status.

Facebook has said that the feature doesn't collect the contents of calls or texts, and that the information collected isn't sold to third parties.

The lawsuit comes as the social media giant has been embroiled in a scandal for the past week after reports of a data analytics firm that worked for the Donald Trump campaign misusing Facebook users' personal information during the 2016 US election. Cambridge Analytica is accused of exploiting the personal data of 50 million Facebook users and using the information to manipulate US voters in the presidential campaign.

A Facebook spokesperson said the company is "looking into these claims."

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