Facebook was denied of its request to dismiss a 2013 lawsuit alleging the social network giant of illegally scanning user's private messages for its targeted advertising.
U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in California denied the request of Facebook to dismiss the user lawsuit under the U.S. Wiretap Act.
Judge Hamilton said that she could not decide whether Facebook's private message scanning practice was under its "ordinary course of business."
According to Hamilton, Facebook was unwilling to offer more details about the social network giant's targeted advertising campaign, preventing the court to determine if the case should be considered "ordinary."
Facebook was allegedly scanning for private messages for its targeted advertising practice, according to the plaintiffs. Under the federal laws of the U.S. and state laws of California, where the Facebook headquarters is based, such practice is illegal. The social network firm said that the private messaging scan practice is legal under an exception in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
The Menlo Park-based social network firm halted the private message scanning in 2012, according to the judge. However, Facebook is still scanning for private messages to block out spam and viruses.
Hamilton, however, did dismiss one of two claims in the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs are demanding that Facebook should pay every single user on the social networking website who sent and received private messages.
If the social network giant loses the case, each user may be paid around $10,000 in damages, according to Techworm.
According to Bloomberg, Facebook has been the target of several lawsuits over the years regarding its privacy policy for its users.