Campbell v. Facebook Inc.

310 F.R.D. 439, 92 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1428, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140733, 2015 WL 5970292
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedOctober 14, 2015
DocketCase No. 13-cv-05996-PJH (MEJ)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 310 F.R.D. 439 (Campbell v. Facebook Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Campbell v. Facebook Inc., 310 F.R.D. 439, 92 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1428, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140733, 2015 WL 5970292 (N.D. Cal. 2015).

Opinion

DISCOVERY ORDER

MARIA-ELENA JAMES, United States Magistrate Judge

INTRODUCTION

The parties in this putative privacy class action recently filed three Joint Discovery Letters outlining various disputes. Dkt. Nos. 112,113,122. In the first Letter, they dispute whether Defendant Facebook, Inc. must produce documents regarding how it monetarily values information obtained by allegedly scanning putative class members’ private Fa-cebook messages. Dkt. No. 112 (“RFP Ltr.”). In their second Letter, they dispute whether Facebook must produce an interrogatory response and related documents about how Fa-cebook processes users’ private messages. Dkt. No. 113 (“Rog/RFP Ltr.”). The Court held a telephonic hearing on these matters on September 29, 2015. Dkt. No. 118. Subsequently, the parties filed an additional letter disputing whether Plaintiffs may take Face-book’s Rule 30(b)(6) deposition concerning certain of its interrogatory responses. Dkt. No. 122 (“Dep. Ltr.”). Having considered the parties’ positions, relevant legal authority, and the record in this ease, the Court issues the following Order.1

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs allege that Facebook “has systematically intercepted Facebook users’ private Facebook messages without their consent[,]” in violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA” or the “Wiretap Act”) and the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”). Consol. Am. Compl. (“CAC”) ¶ 1, Dkt. No. 25.

According to Plaintiffs, whenever a private Facebook message contains a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”), Facebook uses a software application called a “web crawler” to scan the URL. Id. ¶25. Plaintiffs allege that “when their ostensibly private messages contained links to other websites,... Face-book scanned those messages and then analyzed the URL in the link.” Id. ¶4. If the website contained a Facebook “Like” button,2 Facebook treated the content of Plaintiffs’ private messages as an endorsement of the website, adding up to two “Likes” to the page’s count.” Id. ¶¶4, 25-27. Plaintiffs further allege that “Facebook retains the user data it has collected, including the “Likes” assigned through intercepting users’ private messages.” Id. ¶52. They allege Facebook uses the data it collects during a scan of a private message for other purposes including, among others, enhancing its targeted advertising efforts. Id. ¶¶ 30, 49-51. Plaintiffs seek to represent a class of “all natural-person Facebook users located within the United States who have sent or received private messages that included URLs in their content, from within two years before the filing of this action up through and including the date when Facebook ceased its practice.” Id. ¶ 59.

The deadline to file the class certification and summary judgment motions is November 15, 2013. Dkt. No. 117.

LEGAL STANDARD

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 provides that a party may obtain discovery “regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party’s claim or defense.” Fed. [442]*442R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1). “Relevant information need not be admissible at the trial if the discovery appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” Id. A court “must limit the frequency or extent of discovery otherwise allowed by [the Federal] rules” if “(i) the discovery sought is unreasonably cumulative or duplicative, or can be obtained from some other source that is more convenient, less burdensome, or less expensive; (ii) the party seeking discovery has had ample opportunity to obtain the information by discovery in the action; or (iii) the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit, considering the needs of the case, the amount in controversy, the parties’ resources, the importance of the issues at stake in the action, and the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2)(C).

“The court may, for good cause, issue an order to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense,” including by (1) prohibiting disclosure or discovery; (2) conditioning disclosure or discovery on specified terms; (3) preventing inquiry into certain matters; or (4) limiting the scope of disclosure or discovery to certain matters. Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c)(1). “Rule 26(c) confers broad discretion on the trial court to decide when a protective order is appropriate and what degree of protection is required.” Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, 467 U.S. 20, 36, 104 S.Ct. 2199, 81 L.Ed.2d 17 (1984).

DISCUSSION

A. Interrogatory No. 8 and Request for Production No. 41

The first dispute concerns Interrogatory No. 8 of Plaintiffs’ Second Set of Interrogatories and Request for Production of Documents (“RFP”) No. 41. Interrogatory No. 8 asks Facebook to

Identify all facts relating to the Processing of each Private Message sent or received by Plaintiffs containing a URL, including, for each Private Message:
(A) all Objects that were created during the Processing of the Private Message, including the (id) and the Object Type for each Object, as well as any Key -> Value Pair(s) contained in each Object;
(B) all Objects that were created specifically when the embedded URL was shared, including the (id) and the Object Type for each Object, as well as any Key -> Value Pair(s) contained in each Object;
(C) all Associations related to each Private Message, identified by the Source Object, Association Type, and Destination Object, as well as any Key -> Value Pair(s) contained in each Association;
(D) the database names and table names in which each Association and Object is stored;
(E) each application or feature in Face-book that uses the Objects or Associations created for each Private Message; and
(F) how each Object associated with the Private Message was used by Face-book.

Dkt. No. 113-1 at 9-10 (Plaintiffs’ Second Set of Interrogatories). Plaintiffs generally define “Objects and Associations” as “metadata structures that Facebook generates to catalog its users’ online activity.” Rog/RFP Ltr. at 2 n. 1. Plaintiffs’ RFP No. 41 seeks “[a]ll Documents and [electronically stored information (“ESI”)] relied upon, reviewed, or referenced by [Facebook] in answering Interrogatory No. 8.” Dkt. No. 113-2 at 8.

After meeting and conferring with Face-book, Plaintiffs narrowed the requests to focus on only 19 private messages, communicated by the named Plaintiffs; Facebook searched for the specified messages, but located only 16 of them. Rog/RFP Ltr. at 1-2.3 On September 1, 2015, Facebook produced documents in response to Plaintiffs’ requests. Dkt. No. 113-5. Plaintiffs consider Face-book’s production inadequate and unresponsive. Rog/RFP Ltr. at 2-3. First, they assert Facebook “wholly ignored” Interrogatory No.

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310 F.R.D. 439, 92 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1428, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140733, 2015 WL 5970292, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/campbell-v-facebook-inc-cand-2015.