Campbell et al v. Facebook Inc.

Filing 183

EXHIBITS re 181 Administrative Motion to Seal Documents Accompanying Class Certification Briefs and Evidentiary Objections filed by Facebook Inc.. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit 29 (Unredacted), # 2 Exhibit 30 (Redacted), # 3 Exhibit 31 (Unredacted), # 4 Exhibit 32 (Redacted), # 5 Exhibit 33 (Unredacted), # 6 Exhibit 34 (Redacted), # 7 Exhibit 35 (Unredacted), # 8 Exhibit 36 (Redacted), # 9 Exhibit 37 (Unredacted), # 10 Exhibit 38 (Redacted), # 11 Exhibit 39 (Unredacted), # 12 Exhibit 40 (Redacted), # 13 Exhibit 41 (Unredacted), # 14 Exhibit 42 (Unredacted), # 15 Exhibit 43 (Unredacted), # 16 Exhibit 44 (Unredacted), # 17 Exhibit 45 (Unredacted), # 18 Exhibit 46 (Unredacted), # 19 Exhibit 47 (Unredacted), # 20 Exhibit 48 (Unredacted), # 21 Exhibit 49 (Unredacted), # 22 Exhibit 50 (Unredacted), # 23 Exhibit 51 (Unredacted), # 24 Exhibit 52 (Unredacted))(Related document(s) 181 ) (Chorba, Christopher) (Filed on 3/28/2016) Modified on 3/29/2016 (kcS, COURT STAFF).

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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,
Plaintiffs,
v.
FACEBOOK, INC.,
Defendant.

Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)
PUTATIVE CLASS ACTION
DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS
IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT
FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO
PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR CLASS
CERTIFICATION

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Crutcher LLP

DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS 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, Michael Adkins, declare as follows:
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I have been employed as a software engineer at Facebook since May 2010, and my

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current title is Engineering Manager. I am over the age of 18. I have worked on the Facebook

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Messages product to build anti-abuse, security, and anti-phishing systems for the Facebook Messages

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product. My responsibilities generally involve ensuring the integrity of messages passing through

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Facebook’s system to ensure that they are not malicious, fraudulent, or spam. My work thus

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encompasses

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systems). Unless otherwise stated, the following facts are within my personal knowledge and, if

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called and sworn as a witness, I could and would testify competently to these facts.

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2.

one of Facebook’s suite of anti-abuse systems (also referred to as “Security”

I provide this Declaration to explain certain facts regarding Facebook’s software code

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as it relates to Facebook’s

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uniform resource locators (“URLs”) in messages sent and received through the Facebook platform, in

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support of Facebook’s Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification.

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3.

and other Security-related systems, particularly as they relate to

As explained in further detail below, Facebook source code is configured to run

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. Accordingly, there are many

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instances when a URL or URL attachment generated in connection with a message will not lead to

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the creation of a share object. Specifically, in those instances when a URL attachment is blocked by

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no share object will be created. Further, contrary to assertions I understand Plaintiffs have

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made in this case,

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security and anti-abuse functions.

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Overview of

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uses share objects generated from URL attachments to messages for its

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to determine whether a

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message or post, or information included with it – such as a URL – is malicious, fraudulent, or

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otherwise harmful. For example, if a person using Facebook posts or sends a message with the URL

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http://clickmonkeys.com,

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would analyze the URL to determine
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DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS 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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whether it is a harmful link containing spam, malware, a virus, or the like, and whether it is likely that

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the sender’s account has been hijacked (given that it sent a malicious or spammy URL or URLs).

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can likewise run things like

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.

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One general purpose of Facebook’s Security systems (including

, among others)

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is to protect people and their data when they use Facebook. For instance, Facebook encrypts user

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activity (whether that involves posting a status update or sending a message) so that third parties

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cannot access it in transit, and if an individual clicks on a spam post accidentally, Facebook’s

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detection tools determine whether a virus has infected the individual’s browser or computer and helps

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to remove it.

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hackers, and other such individuals or entities, so that all people legitimately using Facebook can

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enjoy the site safely and confidently.

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, among other Security tools, was built to ward off attacks from cyber criminals,

runs a series of various filters and other mechanisms by which to detect abuse

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or other fraudulent activity on Facebook; these include functions called

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“Sigma.”

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in the text of the message

and
the URL typed

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. Sigma, in turn, is a rules engine that runs a series of policies

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.
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DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS 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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and URLs in Messages

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As noted above in paragraph 3, Facebook code is configured such that

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.
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First, during the period covered by discovery in this case (2010-2013), if JavaScript

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code was running in the sender’s browser and it detected the existence of a typed URL, and sent a

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request to ‘scrape’ information about that URL from either a Facebook server or the third-party

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website, Facebook would assess

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. This functionality can be seen in the code file for

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which specifically states that

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.

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9.

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Specifically, if the sender typed a URL into the message and
, which would in turn,

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(which is contained in a
system called

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, it would tell
. Accordingly, no URL preview would be generated. So instead,

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. This was true whether the person using

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Facebook was attempting to share the URL through a message or through a public post to their

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profile, a status message on their NewsFeed, a post to a friend’s profile, or the like;

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to generate a URL
preview. If

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.
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Second, if a URL preview was successfully generated (and not deleted by the sender),

the URL attachment would have been sent with the message when the sender pressed “Send.”

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DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS 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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to determine and help resolve any abuse- or security-related issues.

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intended to detect largescale automated abuse (e.g., spam, malware, phishing, and other abuse). For example, Sigma

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. Likewise, the

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. Further,
could be run through Facebook’s

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.
11.

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, and that the sender was

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allowed to send messages to that recipient (i.e. the recipient had not blocked that sender). This would

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also include

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qualify for delivery to the Inbox or

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whether it should be directed to the” Other” folder, based on the sender-recipient(s) relationship and

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the recipient’s configured settings. The

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the context in which

code file (and other related files) provides

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. If

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such an error occurred, the

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URL attachment to a message, no share object would have been generated from that attachment.

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. If such an error occurred with respect to a

Further, the

check containing data called a

code file creates an object for the
The

is a

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. These features are extracted from the message and include data such as the

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identity of the “target” (i.e. the intended recipient), whether or not the message is a reply to an

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existing message or creates a new thread, the body of the message, and the data from any share object

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associated with the message. Accordingly,

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may use
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DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS 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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. Based on the

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, the sender might have seen the
following security prompt:

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, including

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to perform their anti-abuse- and security-related

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functions. For instance, the “tracking information” about a URL contained in the global share object

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for that URL – such as the number of times it was shared, and in what form (post, message, “Like”

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Button click, comment, etc.), and the date the URL was first shared on Facebook – was available to

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.
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Third, when a sender or a recipient tried to view the sent message,

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. It would once again run a

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discussed in paragraphs 10-13 and if any of these threw an error, the message, part of the

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message, or its URL attachment may not have been rendered to the recipient. Of course, this set of

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checks would not occur if

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DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS 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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If

did

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detect that a URL attachment to the message was potentially dangerous when the recipient (or sender)

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tried to view it in their inbox, it could have shown the following security protocol to the recipient (or

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sender) when they tried to view the message and its attachment:

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Note that, if in this process, a

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it could not render its URL
attachment to the recipient (or sender) trying to view that message. Facebook would

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.
Variability Among Class Members and Over Time in Connection with
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There was considerable variability in a given instance with respect to whether

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on a message and any URL attachment

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associated with it.

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For efficiency reasons, the Sigma

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DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS 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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. Thus,

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presented by each message. It is impossible to know precisely what

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variability of the input and other data

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at a given time.

Further, each individual

, Sigma, and

. For instance, if a sender
attempted to upload a malicious file,

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among others) could determine whether or not to

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will do given the

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Further, Facebook’s

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Similarly, as described earlier above, if a sender sent a message to a recipient

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recognized as their Facebook friend, but the message contained a URL known to be a spammy link,

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.
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Alternatively, if a share object had been created, but was later determined by

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, so that it would not have rendered the URL preview

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attachment to the sender or recipient if they later reopened that message in their Inbox or Sent

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Messages folder.

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Taking all of this variation together, at a minimum, determining whether a putative

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class member’s share of a URL in a message actually resulted in the transmission of a URL

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attachment or creation of a share object depended, among other things, on whether the

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Crutcher LLP

. Such a determination
would require the following individualized inquiries for each message:
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DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS 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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a. Was the message sent from the Facebook website, or was it sent using the Share

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Plugin on a third party website?

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b. Did the sender either copy and paste a URL into the draft message text field, or type a

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URL into the draft text and press the space bar?

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c. Was the URL to a third-party webpage (as opposed to a Facebook webpage)?

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d. Was the sender using a browser that is JavaScript capable?

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e. Did the sender have JavaScript enabled in her browser?

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f. Did any of the

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g. When the message was sent,

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, or Sigma

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, among other things?

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h. After the message had been sent, and the sender or recipient attempted to view it, was

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the URL attachment, or part of the message, or the whole message,

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?
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To my knowledge, neither Facebook nor any other entity possesses the data that would

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be required to ascertain the answers to the inquiries in paragraph 22(a)-(g), either on an individual or

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bulk basis, for putative class members.

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DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS 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 14, 2016, in Menlo

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Park, California.

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/s/ Michael Adkins
Michael Adkins

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DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS 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 Michael
Adkins has been obtained from the signatory. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the
United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed this 15th day of January,
2016, in Los Angeles, California.
Dated: January 15, 2016

/s/ Christopher Chorba
Christopher Chorba

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DECLARATION OF MICHAEL ADKINS IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT FACEBOOK, INC.’S OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’
MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION
Case No. C 13-05996 PJH (MEJ)