Campbell et al v. Facebook Inc.

Filing 153

Exhibits re 147 Administrative Motion to File Under Seal Documents in Support of Facebook's Opposition to Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification filed by Facebook Inc.. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit 46 - Part 3 of 3 (Unredacted), # 2 Exhibit 47 (Redacted), # 3 Exhibit 48 (Unredacted), # 4 Exhibit 49 (Redacted), # 5 Exhibit 50 (Unredacted), # 6 Exhibit 51 (Unredacted), # 7 Exhibit 52 (Unredacted), # 8 Exhibit 53 (Unredacted), # 9 Exhibit 54 (Unredacted), # 10 Exhibit 55 (Unredacted))(Chorba, Christopher) (Filed on 1/16/2016) Modified on 1/20/2016 (vlkS, COURT STAFF).

EXHIBIT 49
REDACTED VERSION OF DOCUMENT(S)
SOUGHT TO BE SEALED

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GIBSON, DUNN & CRUTCHER LLP
JOSHUA A. JESSEN, SBN 222831
[e-mail]
JEANA BISNAR MAUTE, SBN 290573
[e-mail]
PRIYANKA RAJAGOPALAN, SBN 278504
[e-mail]
ASHLEY ROGERS, SBN 286252
[e-mail]
1881 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, California 94304
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
GIBSON, DUNN & CRUTCHER LLP
CHRISTOPHER CHORBA, SBN 216692
[e-mail]
333 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90071
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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)