Computer Fraud And Abuse Act Violated By Bundling Facebook And Other Social Networking Accounts Without Authorization

A California federal court recently issued a substantial monetary award in favor of Facebook and permanent injunction against a website that enabled its users to aggregate their data in social networking sites and messaging services.

Summary of the case.  Power Ventures, Inc. (PVI) operates a website called power.com which integrates multiple social networking accounts.  In late 2008, PVI began permitting participants to access their Facebook accounts through power.com.  Then, PVI launched a promotion in which participants were offered an opportunity to receive a cash payment by selecting Facebook “friends” to whom power.com advertising should be sent.  The advertising did not mention PVI and implied that it came from Facebook.

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