Instagram and its parent company Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) are facing a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that the photo and video-sharing social network is spying on users.
The plaintiff named Brittany Conditi through her legal counsels filed the lawsuitin the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco on Thursday. She is an Instagram user.
In the complaint, Instagram is allegedly deploying iPhone cameras and microphones without users’ authorization to spy on them.
Conditi is asking the court to certify the suit as a Class-Action and she is seeking a jury trial.
The lawsuit originated from complaints to Instagram that became public in July. This was when many users noticed that the photo-sharing app seemed to be using iPhone cameras even though the cameras weren’t active.
Facebook offers an explanation
Facebook first claimed that users were probably accidentally tripping on the cameras. They said that the app’s “Create Mode” is accessible from the Instagram camera which may be setting off the camera indicator and that swiping into the app’s Camera from the “Feed” may also trip it up.
