Campbell et al v. Facebook Inc.
Filing
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RESPONSE (re 138 MOTION to Certify Class ) Opposition to Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification (Redacted) filed byFacebook Inc.. *** ATTACHMENTS 1, 7 LOCKED AT FILER'S REQUEST. SEE DOCUMENT 162 *** (Attachments: # 1 Declaration Declaration of Christopher Chorba In Support of Defendant Facebook, Inc.s Opposition to Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification (Redacted), # 2 Declaration Declaration of Alex Himel In Support of Defendant Facebook, Inc.s Opposition to Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification (Redacted), # 3 Declaration Declaration of Dan Fechete In Support of Defendant Facebook, Inc.s Opposition to Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification (Redacted), # 4 Exhibit Expert Report of Dr. Benjamin Goldberg (Redacted), # 5 Exhibit Exhibit BBB to Expert Report of Dr. Benjamin Goldberg, # 6 Exhibit Exhibit CCC to Expert Report of Dr. Benjamin Goldberg, # 7 Exhibit Expert Report of Dr. Catherine Tucker (Redacted), # 8 Exhibit Exhibit DDD to Expert Report of Dr. Catherine Tucker, # 9 Exhibit Exhibit EEE - Expert Report of Dr. Catherine Tucker, # 10 Exhibit Exhibit FFF - Expert Report of Dr. Catherine Tucker, # 11 Exhibit Exhibit GGG - Expert Report of Dr. Catherine Tucker, # 12 Exhibit Exhibit HHH - Expert Report of Dr. Catherine Tucker, # 13 Exhibit Exhibit III - Expert Report of Dr. Catherine Tucker, # 14 Exhibit Exhibit JJJ - Expert Report of Dr. Catherine Tucker)(Chorba, Christopher) (Filed on 1/15/2016) Modified on 1/22/2016 (ewn, COURT STAFF). Modified on 1/22/2016 (vlkS, COURT STAFF).
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GIBSON, DUNN & CRUTCHER LLP
JOSHUA A. JESSEN, SBN 222831
JJessen@gibsondunn.com
JEANA BISNAR MAUTE, SBN 290573
JBisnarMaute@gibsondunn.com
PRIYANKA RAJAGOPALAN, SBN 278504
PRajagopalan@gibsondunn.com
ASHLEY ROGERS, SBN 286252
ARogers@gibsondunn.com
1881 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, California 94304
Telephone: (650) 849-5300
Facsimile: (650) 849-5333
GIBSON, DUNN & CRUTCHER LLP
CHRISTOPHER CHORBA, SBN 216692
CChorba@gibsondunn.com
333 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90071
Telephone: (213) 229-7000
Facsimile: (213) 229-7520
Attorneys for Defendant
FACEBOOK, INC.
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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OAKLAND DIVISON
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MATTHEW CAMPBELL and MICHAEL
HURLEY,
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Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
PUTATIVE CLASS ACTION
Plaintiffs,
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN
SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK,
INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
v.
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FACEBOOK, INC.,
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Defendant.
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REDACTED VERSION OF DOCUMENT(S) SOUGHT TO BE SEALED
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Gibson, Dunn &
Crutcher LLP
DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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I, Dan Fechete, declare as follows:
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I have been employed as a software engineer at Facebook since October 2011, and my
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current title is Engineering Manager. I am over the age of 18. Since I joined Facebook, I have
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worked on Facebook’s Developer Platform, and, until they were deprecated, my work encompassed
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Facebook’s “Recommendations” and “Activity Feed” plugins and certain Facebook services related
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to those plugins. The following facts reflecting functionality prior to October 2011 are based on my
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review of the cited documents and related source code. The following facts reflecting functionality
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after October 2011 are based on my review of the cited documents and related source code, as well as
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my personal knowledge. If called and sworn as a witness, I could and would testify competently to
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these facts.
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I provide this Declaration to explain certain facts regarding Facebook’s software code
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as it relates to Facebook’s “Recommendations” and “Activity Feed” plugins and certain Facebook
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services related to those plugins, particularly as they related to uniform resource locators (“URLs”) in
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messages sent and received through the Facebook platform.
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3.
I understand that on November 13, 2015, Plaintiffs filed a Motion for Certification of
the following proposed class:
All natural-person Facebook users located within the United States who have sent, or
received from a Facebook user, private messages that included URLs in their content
(and from which Facebook generated a URL attachment), from within two years before
the filing of this action up through the date of the certification of the class.
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I understand that Plaintiffs filed their action on December 30, 2013, and that therefore the relevant
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period for Plaintiffs’ new purported class is December 30, 2011 to present (the “Class Period”).
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4.
I understand that Plaintiffs have submitted an expert report from Dr. Jennifer Golbeck
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in support of their Motion for Certification, which purports to describe Facebook’s “interception and
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acquisition of the URL attachments in Private Messages,” as well as purported “uses” of that data—
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including use in “External Recommendations,” “Taste,” and “Activity Feed.” I also understand that
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her report (as well as her deposition testimony) included the statements cited herein.
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Gibson, Dunn &
Crutcher LLP
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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Overview of Recommendations Plugin and “Taste”
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Facebook’s Recommendations Feed1 was a social plugin offered to developers that
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displayed a list of URLs representing the most recommended webpages on that developer’s site. If
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someone was logged into Facebook when he or she visited the developer’s website,
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Recommendations Feed prioritized information that was subject to certain actions by that person’s
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Facebook friends, including friends’ clicking on a “Like” button on a given webpage. For example, a
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site that publishes articles might display the most recommended articles and those articles
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recommended by a friend of the viewer, as illustrated by the example below:
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9.
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The general purpose of the Recommendations Feed was to help people discover web
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information that they were likely to want to view, enjoy, and interact with. It was part of a set of
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social plugins announced at the same time (April 2010), all of which were designed to personalize
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non-Facebook webpages with information that a particular person would find valuable, in order to
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personalize the internet at large with social context in order to facilitate information discovery and
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encourage social interaction.
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Gibson, Dunn &
Crutcher LLP
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Dr. Golbeck refers to this as the “Recommendations widget.” (Golbeck Report ¶ 60.)
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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10.
Facebook’s Recommendations Feed was announced to the public at Facebook’s F8
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conference in April 2010 (a conference where Facebook announces new products and features). In
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addition to the Recommendations Feed, the Recommendations “API” was an interface on or from a
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Facebook webpage that allowed people to write queries to display the same information presented by
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the Feed.2 Likewise, the Recommendations “Bar” was a later implementation of the same
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Recommendations Feed, but also added the ability for the viewer to “Like” or “Share” the
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Recommended information. It was introduced on July 26, 2012. Unless otherwise indicated below,
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the Recommendations API and Recommendations Bar reflected the same information displayed by
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the Recommendations Feed at a given time for a given URL viewed by a given person. The
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Recommendations Feed (and related Bar and API) were discontinued on June 23, 2015.
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Dr. Golbeck refers to this as “an API call in RecommendationsGetAPI.php.” (Id.)
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Gibson, Dunn &
Crutcher LLP
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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30.
From June 23, 2015, when the Recommendations Feed was discontinued, to present,
the Recommendations Feed has not existed.
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Crutcher LLP
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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Activity Feed Plugin
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38.
Facebook’s Activity Feed was a social plugin offered to developers that displayed a
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list of recent activity taken on that developer’s site. If someone was logged into Facebook when she
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visited the developer’s site, Activity Feed prioritized actions by that person’s Facebook friends,
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particularly friends’ clicking on a “Like” button on a given webpage. If the person was not logged in,
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or there was not enough activity to fill the Activity Feed, the Activity Feed would have reflected
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URLs from the Recommendations Feed. Developers also could have configured the plugin to show
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both the Activity Feed and Recommendations Feed.
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39.
The general purpose of the Activity Feed was similar to the Recommendations Feed,
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to help people discover web information that they were likely to want to view, enjoy, and interact
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with.
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40.
Facebook’s Activity Feed was announced to the public at Facebook’s F8 conference in
April 2010. The Activity Feed was discontinued on June 23, 2015.
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the
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foregoing is true and correct and that this declaration was executed on January 15, 2016 in Menlo
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Park, California.
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/s/ Dan Fechete
Dan Fechete
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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ATTORNEY ATTESTATION
I, Christopher Chorba, attest that concurrence in the filing of this Declaration of Dan Fechete
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has been obtained from the signatory. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United
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States of America that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed this 15th day of January, 2016, in
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Los Angeles, California.
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Dated: January 15, 2016
/s/ Christopher Chorba
Christopher Chorba
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DECLARATION OF DAN FECHETE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
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