Online game developer Zynga, chiefly known for making some of Facebook’s most popular games, is reportedly facing a class action lawsuit for breaching users’ privacy.
The federal lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in San Francisco last week, alleges that Zynga – the maker of six out of ten of the social networking site’s most played online games – collected and transmitted around 218 million user IDs to outside companies.
An investigation by the Wall Street Journal revealed that many Facebook apps transmitted unique user IDs to advertisers and other third parties. This is despite both Facebook and Zynga’s pledges to protect users’ private information.
The lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a woman called Nancy Graf in Minnesota, but its bid for class action status means that it is open for many other complainants to join.
Although Zynga says that the case has no merit and that they plan to defend it vigorously, the sheer number of potential victims seeking monetary could lead to an extremely expensive bill for the company should it be found liable for breaching privacy laws.
This is why professional indemnity insurance was invented; to protect against the financial ramifications of inadvertent mistakes or other breaches of service.