In re Facebook Biometric Information Privacy Litigation

Filing 402

ORDER RE PRE-TRIAL CLASS NOTICE. Signed by Judge James Donato on 5/24/2018. (Attachments: #1 Exhibit Court Revisions)(jdlc3S, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 5/24/2018)

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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IN RE FACEBOOK BIOMETRIC
INFORMATION PRIVACY LITIGATION

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THIS DOCUMENT RELATES TO:
ALL ACTIONS

Case No. 3:15-cv-03747-JD
ORDER RE PRE-TRIAL CLASS
NOTICE
Re: Dkt. No. 393

United States District Court
Northern District of California

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The revised long-form and short-form class notices that the parties jointly filed, Dkt. Nos.

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393-1 and 395-1, are approved subject to these revisions:

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For the long-form notice, Page 2 Number 18 should read: “When and where is the trial?”

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The last sentence of Page 4 Section 7 should refer to page 7, not page 6, and the period after the

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parenthesis should be deleted. On Page 7, Section 18 should be titled, “When and where is the

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trial?”

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For the short-form notice, on Page 1, the paragraph under “WHO IS IN THE CLASS”

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should be made identical to Section 10 of the long-form notice (“Am I part of the class?”). Also

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on Page 1, “WHAT THE CASE IS ABOUT” and the paragraph below should be deleted entirely.

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On Page 2, the paragraph titled “HOW AND WHEN THE COURT WILL DECIDE WHO IS

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RIGHT” should instead be titled “WHEN AND WHERE IS THE TRIAL”.

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For both the long and short-form notices, the opt-out date should be July 8, 2018.

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For the parties’ convenience, drafts showing the Court’s changes are attached to this order.

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These revisions resolve the content of the pre-trial notice forms, and no objections are pending.
With respect to the timeline for publication, the Court continues to have concerns about the
accuracy of the representations made by Facebook’s attorney on the extended time needed for

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jewel notifications and newsfeed posts. The party declaration requested by the Court, Dkt. No.

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401, states that Facebook can provide jewel notifications within five calendar days of putting the

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notice into final form, and within three calendar days for the newsfeed channel. Facebook is

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ordered to adhere to those timeframes. The parties have not raised any issues about the content of

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the notifications and newsfeed notices, and so the Court assumes they are ready to go or will be

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very shortly.

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The combination of direct email notices to Facebook users, jewel notifications, newsfeed

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posts, and the activation of the web page dedicated to the lawsuit and offering electronic opt-out

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for class members constitutes best practicable notice to individual class members under the
circumstances of this case. The parties are free to provide any additional notice they wish, for

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United States District Court
Northern District of California

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example, notices in media publications and other forms of outreach.

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The email, jewel notifications, and newsfeed notices must be published no later than
May 31, 2018, and before then to the fullest extent possible.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated: May 24, 2018

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JAMES DONATO
United States District Judge

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