Facebook has filed a lawsuit in Portugal against two developers based there who are said to have stolen user data from Facebook users. This violates Portuguese data protection regulations and Facebook’s usage guidelines.

The developers are said to have used self-programmed browser extensions offered by the company “Oink and Stuff”. These extensions are intended to access data such as name, user ID, gender, relationship status, age group and other information without the consent or knowledge of the user.

Four browser extensions affected Facebook has identified four browser extensions that are said to contain such malicious code. “Web for Instagram plus DM”, “Blue Messenger”, “Emoji Keyboard” and “Green Messenger” should therefore function like spyware. These browser extensions are available for Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Microsoft Edge. At least some of them can still be downloaded. According to the Chrome, Firefox and Opera browser shops, they are also more than 150. 000 – times

If a user visits Facebook with one of these browser extensions, their data will be tapped. However, Facebook does not rule out that the extensions do the same when visiting other websites. Facebook’s security system has not been compromised. Only the user data could be misused.

Not the first lawsuit for data theft Facebook is now seeking the Portuguese judiciary to judge that the accused developers must stop the distribution of these browser extensions and delete all tapped Facebook data. Last year Facebook already filed several lawsuits in a similar matter.

For example, the British software company Mobiburn has to answer in court for allegedly tapping user data via an ad SDK. BrandTotal and Unimania, a company from Israel and one based in Delaware, have to face legal proceedings in October for illegally stealing data from Facebook.

(fds)