South Tahoe man files suit against Facebook

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE - A South Lake Tahoe man has filed a class action lawsuit against popular social networking website Facebook

.com, claiming the site divulged personal information to advertisers against its privacy policy.

David Gould filed the lawsuit against Facebook in federal court in San Jose last week.

The suit seeks unspecified damages for Gould and any Facebook user who clicked on a third-party advertisement contained on the site between Feb. 4, 2004 and May 21, 2010.

When Facebook users clicked on an advertisement, the social networking site sent the advertiser a "referrer header" including the user ID of the person clicking the advertisement, according to the suit.

The referrer header allowed the advertisers to navigate back to the page and "gain the ultimate demographic information: users' true identities, including real name, gender, friends, interests and more. All in violation of Facebook's own privacy policy," according to the suit.

Facebook has come under fire in recent months for changes to its privacy policy. Critics contend the social networking site has not been upfront with its more than 400 million users regarding how information they post to the site could be used.

Representatives from Facebook did not return a request for comment.