3 Facebook users sue over data breaches

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Three users of the Facebook Messenger app sued Facebook on Tuesday, saying the social network violated their privacy by collecting logs of their phone calls and text messages, in the latest legal challenge facing the company.

The US lawsuit filed in federal court in the Northern District of California seeks status as a class action on behalf of all affected users and asks for unspecified damages.

A Facebook representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

Facebook, which is reeling from a scandal over its handling of personal data, on Sunday acknowledged that it had been logging some users’ call and text history but said it had done so only when users of the Android operating system had opted in.

Facebook said on Sunday that it does not collect the content of calls or text messages, and that information is securely stored. The data is not sold to third parties, it said.

Android is owned by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which is not named as a defendant in the suit.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s privacy commissioner said yesterday that Facebook broke the law by not releasing information to a man who wanted to know what others were saying about him on the social network.

Commissioner John Edwards said Facebook refused the man access to personal information that was held on the accounts of several Facebook users.