Facebook will have to face a class-action lawsuit, alleging the social media giant of violating its users' privacy, according to a U.S. judge.
The January 2013 lawsuit claims that Facebook is scanning the users' private messages for links, which are bumped up in likes in order to make the social network more appealing to advertisers.
The data gathered from the private messages scanning was also used by Facebook to deliver targeted advertisements to its millions of users, according to the lawsuit. It also alleged that the practice violates the federal and California state law.
According to U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton of California, Facebook did not offer a "sufficient explanation" regarding the private message scans and how it relates with the "ordinary course" of their business.
On the other hand, Facebook is arguing that the private message scans was under an exception from the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
According to the judge's ruling, the social network firm already stopped its private messages scanning in October 2012, but Facebook is still analyzing messages to block spam and malware.
Even with the class-action lawsuit, the judge still ruled out several statues due to insufficient evidence and no alleged property and money loss.
Matthew Campbell, a Facebook user, filed the lawsuit named Campbell v. Facebook Inc, U.S. Disctric Court, Northern District of California 13-5996.
Both the social network giant and the plaintiffs did not give comments regarding the issue.
According to expandedramblings.com, Facebook users saw 40 percent more ads starting from the first quarter of 2013 up to 2014.