User Permission Not Enough for Facebook Data Access

A social media aggregator is liable under federal law for accessing Facebook Inc.'s user data without permission from the company, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held July 12 (Facebook Inc. v. Power Ventures Inc., 2016 BL 222798, 9th Cir., 13-17154, 7/12/16).

Defendant Power Ventures Inc. had permission from Facebook users, but that wasn’t sufficient to constitute authorization under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act after Facebook issued a cease and desist letter, Judge Susan P. Graber said.

The CFAA, 18 U.S.C. § 1030, prohibits the access of a protected computer without authorization ...