Facebook "hacked by porn site"

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 18 Dec 2007 at 11:10

Facebook is suing a Canadian porn company, alleging that it mined the social networking site for users' personal details.

According to court documents, Canadian firm SlickCash and several individuals, used automated scripts to "gain unauthorised access to its website and access more than 200,000 separate proprietary Facebook web pages and gather private and proprietary information about Facebook users such as usernames, passwords, network affiliations and email addresses."

This complaint goes on to allege that "the defendants knowingly and without permission took, copied, or made use of, data from Facebook's proprietary computers and computer network" with the intention of spamming its users.

Facebook claims that its website suffered substantial damages in excess of $5,000. It is suing for an undisclosed sum.

The complaint was filed last week after Facebook was granted a Canadian court order, forcing ISP Rogers and Look Communications to turn over customer information.

We are awaiting comment from Facebook at the time of publication, though the company has commented in the past that it doesn't discuss ongoing litigation.