Houseparty and similar apps have surged in popularity during the novel coronavirus pandemic, as they offer a virtual gathering place for friends and family members who are confined to their individual homes. Still, even Facebook’s own terms of use state that any app using its software development kit must provide “robust and sufficiently prominent notice to users regarding the customer data collection, sharing, and usage.” … Numerous lawsuits are currently pending against Facebook regarding its disclosure of significant quantities of user information to third parties without their consent, and Facebook has faced enforcement action from the Federal Trade Commission and Congressional investigation regarding its misuse of consumer data.” The Houseparty class action lawsuit also notes that sharing personal information with Facebook is “especially egregious given the serious defects in Facebook’s handling of consumer information. This effectively bars users from opting out of sharing their information. This activity is undetectable by Houseparty users and the company fails to warn them of it, the plaintiff states.

“With the IDFA marketers do not need to know the name, address, or email of a particular user in order to identify, target, and contract that particular user,” the Houseparty class action lawsuit states, noting that such information has “tremendous economic value” to those parties. This, in turn, allows those parties to tailor their advertising accordingly. In addition, each user device generates a unique advertiser identifier known as an IDFA, which allows third-parties to learn information such as location, behaviors and preferences, according to the filing. The suit claims that this enables the social media giant’s software development kit to collect personally identifiable information, such as the IP address, the phone service carrier and the specific device being used. However, the Houseparty class action lawsuit states that those who download and open the app are prompted to connect it to their Facebook account.

House party app creator