Several major app developers, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Yelp, settled a putative class action pending in California federal court last week.  The app companies have agreed to pay a consolidated $5.3 million to resolve claims of invasion of privacy/intrusion upon seclusion.  The consolidated case is Opperman et al. v. Kong Technologies, Inc. et al., Case No. 3:13-cv-00453, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. 

The class action alleged that the apps invaded users’ privacy by gathering information stored in users’ personal address books and transmitting it without their knowledge.  The alleged practice of taking address book information without permission first came to light in February 2012, when a developer claimed that Path, a mobile social network, was uploading users’ contacts to its own servers without informing users.  Commentators expressed concern that individuals’ address books could contain private information.  For example, in some countries, dissidents would not want state officials to use their address books to obtain information about where they live, their families, or the identities of other protesters. 

The Opperman class action finally moved into the discovery phase in March 2015, when U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar denied defendants’ motions to dismiss the proposed class action, saying the plaintiffs adequately alleged they relied on defendants’ ads and other statements touting the security of their devices and adequately alleged the developers invaded their privacy.  However, the judge also denied injunctive relief because there was no “realistic threat” that the defendants would allow contact information contained in consumers’ address books to be accessed by app developers in the future.

The settlement covers a purported class of about 7 million individuals.  In the settlement proposal, plaintiffs noted that it “is the product of protracted and highly adversarial litigation, spanning five years and reflected in the case’s procedural history before the Court, together with extensive and complex negotiations between and among the parties and their experienced and informed counsel.”  Individuals who downloaded apps such as Instagram and utilized the Find Friends or similar features between 2010 and 2012 and who submit valid claims will be sent cash or cash-equivalent payments on a per app basis according to the settlement documents.  The settlement proposal notes that “the App Defendants have vigorously contested both their liability and Plaintiffs’ ability to certify the asserted claims for class treatment” and “liability remains highly disputed in the case.”