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"The "tangible" damages to all these users is not clear to me." The Illinois Supreme Court decided there is no need to claim actual damages. As the article cl

"The "tangible" damages to all these users is not clear to me." The Illinois Supreme Court decided there is no need to claim actual damages. As the article clearly states, there are statutory damages.1 You might think of these as like a fine you pay everytime you violate Illinois privacy law. 1. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/victory-illinois-supreme-court-protects-biometric-privacy https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/victory-illinois-supre... Certainly we can be cynical about class actions. Class action lawyers handling cases with millions of class members probably care about individual class members as much as over-compensated Facebook employees care about individual Facebook users (or internet users Facebook spies on in general). One difference is lawyers are regulated, licensed professionals who have to follow ethics rules, while Facebook employees implementing and deploying privacy-violating technology for profit are under no such restrictions. Imagine if lawyers could use all the personal, confidential information they see in the course of their work with clients to finance an online "platform" for targeted advertising. Knowing so much about people's personal lives, they could pass on "relevant ads" to clients. Perhaps they could even promise that their services would "always be free". Fortunately, they can't. However, Facebook can.

spurdoman77 6y ago
> One difference is lawyers are regulated, licensed professionals who have to follow ethics rules LOL
- dodobirdlord 6y ago
  Seriously though, lawyers are basically never sanctioned or disbarred, and the level of misbehavior required to invite sanctions is extremely high.
  - washadjeffmad 6y ago
    So it's an effective deterrent? What matters is there's a recognized process for it. What does Facebook call doing something profitable that crosses a legal or ethical boundary before their competitors can do it? Promotable innovation, probably.
  - ianai 6y ago
    There are some crazy high requirements to become a lawyer though.
    - brianwawok 6y ago
      Easier to become a lawyer than a Facebook or similar sized tech co?
  - runawaybottle 6y ago
    Maybe lawyers are operating under mutually assured destruction? You sue me I’ll sue you. You find evidence, I’ll say the evidence needs to be thrown out. I don’t know if they operate with impunity. Compare it to tech, where it’s basically ‘you signed the TOS’, and the discussion ends there. We have yet to see a case where someone argues ‘Your TOS was misleading’, which would be the watershed case we’d need to establish some precedent.
fingerlocks 6y ago
You had me until that last paragraph. Facebook doesn’t steal confidential information, but I don’t want to belabor that point. Otherwise, thanks. I feel less unsettled now.
- apple_innocent 6y ago
  Not "steal", but "use". (Facebook does not have to "steal", people give their information to the Facebook middleman willingly.) Why are WhatsApp communications encrypted. What can they be used for. Who can use them. Note also that "use" and "disclose" may be two different things. Something like scanning peoples' Gmail might be an example of "use" without "disclosure". There are only two other states that have a law similar to the one in Illinois.

spurdoman77 6y ago

> One difference is lawyers are regulated, licensed professionals who have to follow ethics rules LOL

dodobirdlord 6y ago
Seriously though, lawyers are basically never sanctioned or disbarred, and the level of misbehavior required to invite sanctions is extremely high.
- washadjeffmad 6y ago
  So it's an effective deterrent? What matters is there's a recognized process for it. What does Facebook call doing something profitable that crosses a legal or ethical boundary before their competitors can do it? Promotable innovation, probably.
- ianai 6y ago
  There are some crazy high requirements to become a lawyer though.
  - brianwawok 6y ago
    Easier to become a lawyer than a Facebook or similar sized tech co?
- runawaybottle 6y ago
  Maybe lawyers are operating under mutually assured destruction? You sue me I’ll sue you. You find evidence, I’ll say the evidence needs to be thrown out. I don’t know if they operate with impunity. Compare it to tech, where it’s basically ‘you signed the TOS’, and the discussion ends there. We have yet to see a case where someone argues ‘Your TOS was misleading’, which would be the watershed case we’d need to establish some precedent.

fingerlocks 6y ago

You had me until that last paragraph. Facebook doesn’t steal confidential information, but I don’t want to belabor that point. Otherwise, thanks. I feel less unsettled now.

apple_innocent 6y ago
Not "steal", but "use". (Facebook does not have to "steal", people give their information to the Facebook middleman willingly.) Why are WhatsApp communications encrypted. What can they be used for. Who can use them. Note also that "use" and "disclose" may be two different things. Something like scanning peoples' Gmail might be an example of "use" without "disclosure". There are only two other states that have a law similar to the one in Illinois.