In re Facebook Internet Tracking Litigation

263 F. Supp. 3d 836
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJune 30, 2017
DocketCase No. 5:12-md-02314-EJD
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 263 F. Supp. 3d 836 (In re Facebook Internet Tracking Litigation) 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
In re Facebook Internet Tracking Litigation, 263 F. Supp. 3d 836 (N.D. Cal. 2017).

Opinion

[840]*840ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO DISMISS

EDWARD J. DAVILA, United States District Judge

Plaintiffs allege that Defendant Face-book, Inc. violated their privacy by tracking their browsing activity on third-party websites. This Court previously granted Facebook’s motion to dismiss, with leave to amend, for lack of standing and failure to state a claim. Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, and Facebook now moves to dismiss. Facebook’s motion will be GRANTED.

I. BACKGROUND

Facebook operates a social networking website.1 Second Am. Consolidated Class Action Compl. (“SAC”) ¶ 16, Dkt. No. 93. Third-party websites can embed Facebook “like” buttons to let users share content on Facebook — for instance, CNN can embed “like” buttons on news articles that it publishes on http://www.cnn.com/ to let users share content with their Facebook friends. Id. ¶ 49. To make the “like” button appear on the page, CNN embeds a small code snippet that Facebook provides. Id. That code snippet causes the user’s browser to send a background request to Facebook’s servers. Id. That request includes, the URL of the page where the “like” button is embedded, as well as the contents of “cookies” — small text files — that Facebook has stored on that user’s browser. Id. ¶¶ 3, 52.

Plaintiffs allege that Facebook uses “like” buttons to track Plaintiffs’ web browsing activity. Id. ¶¶ 3-5. Because URLs are transmitted to Facebook each time a user visits a page that contains a “like” button, Plaintiffs allege that Face-book violated various privacy laws by collecting detailed records of Plaintiffs’ private web browsing history. Id. Plaintiffs allege that Facebook’s cookies enable it to uniquely identify users and correlate their identities with their browsing activity, even when users are logged out of Face-book. Id. ¶¶ 48-49. As discussed below, Plaintiffs also allege that Facebook circumvented certain privacy settings of the [841]*841Internet Explorer web browser. Id. ¶¶ 85-101.

Plaintiffs’ initial class-action complaint alleged various statutory and common-law privacy violations. Dkt. No. 35. Facebook moved to dismiss. Dkt. No. 44. This Court granted Facebook’s motion to dismiss, with leave to amend, on the grounds that Plaintiffs failed to establish Article III standing with respect to some of their claims, and that Plaintiffs failed to state a claim with respect to the rest. Order Granting Def.’s Mot. to Dismiss (“MTD Order”), Dkt. No. 87. Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint alleging violations of the federal Wiretap Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510 et seq. (SAC ¶¶ 179-92); violations of the federal Stored Communications Act (“SCA”), 18 U.S.C. §§ 2701 et seq. (SAC ¶¶ 193-208); violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”), Cal. Crim. Code §§ 631, 632 (SAC ¶¶ 209-19); invasion of privacy under the California Constitution (SAC ¶¶ 220-31); ' intrusion' upon seclusion (SAC ¶¶ 232-41); breach of contract (SAC ¶¶ 242-52); breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing (SAC ¶¶ 253-61); fraud, Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1572, 1573 (SAC ¶¶ 262-69); trespass to chattels (SAC ¶¶ 270-73); violations of the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (“CDAFA”), Cal. Penal Code § 502 (SAC ¶¶ 274-85); and larceny, Cal. Penal Code §§ 484, 496 (SAC ¶¶286-95).2 Facebook now moves to dismiss the' SAC under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). Def.’s Mot. to Dismiss (“MTD”), Dkt. No. 101.

II. LEGAL STANDARD

A. Rule 12(b)(1)

Dismissal under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) is appropriate if the complaint fails to allege facts sufficient to establish subject-matter jurisdiction. Savage v. Glendale Union High Sch., 343 F.3d 1036, 1039 n.2 (9th Cir. 2003). The Court “is not restricted to the face of the pleadings, but may review any evidence, such as affidavits and testimony, to resolve factual disputes concerning the existence of jurisdiction.” McCarthy v. United States, 850 F.2d 558, 560 (9th Cir. 1988). The nonmoving party bears the burden of establishing jurisdiction. Chandler v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 598 F.3d 1115, 1122 (9th Cir. 2010).

B. Rule 12(b)(6)

A motion to dismiss, under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) tests the legal sufficiency of claims alleged in the complaint. Parks Sch. of Bus., Inc. v. Symington, 51 F.3d 1480, 1484 (9th Cir. ;1995). Dismissal “is proper only where there is- no cognizable legal theory or an absence of sufficient facts alleged to support a cognizable legal theory.” Navarro v. Block, 250 F.3d 729, 732 (9th Cir. 2001). The complaint “must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)).

III. DISCUSSION

A. Standing

To establish Article III standing, a plaintiff must have “(1) suffered an injury in fact, (2) that is fairly traceable to the challenged conduct of the defendant, and (3) that is. likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision.” Spokeo, Inc. v. [842]*842Robins, — U.S.-, 136 S.Ct, 1540, 1547, 194 L.Ed.2d 635 (2016). The plaintiff bears the burden of proving these elements. Id.

The plaintiffs injury must be “particularized” and “concrete.” Id. at 1548, To be particularized, it “must affect the plaintiff in a personal 'and individual way,” Id. To be concrete, it must be real, not abstract. Id. at 1548-49, A concrete injury can be tangible or intangible. Id. A plaintiff cannot “allege a bare procedural violation, divorced from any concrete harm, and satisfy the injury-in-fact requirements of Article III.” Id at 1549. A plaintiff does not “automatically satisffy] the injury-in-fact requirement whenever a statute grants a person a statutory right and purports to authorize that person to sue tó vindicate that right.” Id However, a statutory violation can confer standing when the “alleged intangible harm has a close relationship to a harm that has traditionally been regarded as providing a basis for a lawsuit in English or American courts.” Id.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Brodsky v. Apple Inc.
N.D. California, 2020
Williams v. Facebook, Inc.
384 F. Supp. 3d 1043 (N.D. California, 2018)
Patel v. Facebook Inc.
290 F. Supp. 3d 948 (N.D. California, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
263 F. Supp. 3d 836, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-facebook-internet-tracking-litigation-cand-2017.