Doesn't sound like a surprise to me, sounds like he knew exactly what he would get and what he wanted to do with it.
Not that I am saying he shouldn't have done it, I just find the innocent kid law student thing funny (could this further his career? possibly).
Anyway, it really shouldn't be a surprise that these "social" companies are collecting huge amounts of personal information and no matter if you tell them NO or DELETE they still have it stored away.
If you truly don't want your information out to be seen then you shouldn't have it on your computer.
I hope more people open their eyes to that fact.

If you truly don't want your information out to be seen then you shouldn't have it on your computer.

In all fairness the problem has moved beyond voluntary information on the computer.

He won't win. Any and all digital data you create is permanent and viewable, with the right clearance, even if you have no idea it exists. In fact there has been a push to make sure NOBODY can fall off the grid so to speak, even if you don't use a computer. If I had the right clearance I could see what you looked like at the ATM machine yesterday(built in camera), know where you parked your vehicle this evening (OnStar, satellite tracking, etc), and even know exactly where you are right now by finding the rfid chip on your credit or bank card(or the one in your underwear, you used a bank card or rewards card when buying them). I have NO doubt that there are even more devious ways, used for the protection of everyone, that would also violate your tolerance levels.

This lawsuit is about Facebook but a tap on the shoulder will/needs to occur to protect the interests mentioned above. Regular people are a flock that needs maintaining afterall, right?

P.S. stop buying the soup mix from aisle 3 at the widget shop, the mix from aisle 1 at the healthy widgets shop is much better for you, your rewards club food purchase history says you're 91% likely to be fat.

Yeah was big news a month ago in my country.... [webmasterworld.com...]

The funny thing about the "technology" media in Ireland is that the journalists (very few of them have any background in technology) really don't understand the ramifications of Big Data and how it can be used. These things only get looked at when there is a sufficient number of complaints to attract governmental attention. These muppets witter on about data privacy and tracking and then pop into the local Tesco or Superquinn stores and use their loyalty cards at the checkouts. Some of the algorithms used in search would have a historical element and perhaps some of the social graph algorithms would have too.

Regards...jmcc

There is a whole website dedicated to complaints about facebook which have been submitted to the Irish authorities:

[europe-v-facebook.org...]

Pretty interesting stuff.

He won't win.

?
"He" isn't trying to "win" .."he" has made the complaint, and now the EU via Irish data protection commissioner are investigating ( no one is fighting anyone..so "win" isn't in the equation) facebook over this ..