Zynga Faces Class-Action Lawsuit over Alleged Privacy Breach

[Jake Kouns <jkouns () opensecurityfoundation org>]

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/10/zynga_facebook_lawsuit.php

No matter what they do, some companies seem chronically incapable of
playing peacefully in the sandbox of American capitalism with others.
San Francisco-based game developer Zynga -- the wildly successful firm
behind such popular Facebook applications as FarmVille and Mafia Wars
-- is one of them, and  is now facing a class-action lawsuit driven by
customer allegations of privacy abuses.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in San Francisco's federal court by
Minnesota resident Nancy Graf, comes on the heels of a Wall Street
Journal investigation into the sharing of users' personal data by
Facebook and Zynga. The Journal found that Zynga games such as
FarmVille and FrontierVille were sending information identifying
gamers to third parties, which use the data to assemble profiles of
internet users and track people online for advertising purposes.

Even those who have set their Facebook privacy settings to the
strictest level can be affected by such breaches, according to the
Journal, which also reports that this sort of sharing of user data by
app developers is in violation of Facebook's rules. (Facebook is also
coming in for its share of the blame, as evidenced by a similar
lawsuit in Rhode Island.)

Graf's lawsuit asks for an injunction to prevent continued sharing of
user information, as well as monetary damages. The suit doesn't state
how much she is seeking.
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