Jury finds Meta broke wiretap law by collecting data from period-tracker app

In a landmark decision, a federal jury ruled on Friday that Meta has breached California's wiretap laws by unlawfully gathering data from a period-tracking application without obtaining user consent. The plaintiffs in this class-action lawsuit successfully demonstrated, through substantial evidence, that Meta engaged in unauthorized eavesdropping and recording of conversations via electronic means, according to a verdict released in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The jury affirmed that users had a reasonable expectation of privacy, which Meta violated by not securing consent from all involved parties in the conversations it recorded. The case originated in 2021 against Flo Health, the developer of the period-tracking app, which monitors menstrual cycles, ovulation, and pregnancy. Initially, the lawsuit included Meta, Google, and Flurry, a mobile app analytics firm, but the plaintiffs reached settlements with Flo Health, Google, and Flurry prior to the trial, leaving Meta as the sole defendant. In their trial brief, the plaintiffs argued that Flo Health allowed both Google and Meta to intercept users' private communications within the app from November 2016 to February 2019. Users of the Flo application were required to complete an onboarding survey, indicating personal goals related to pregnancy and menstrual health, along with other sensitive information. Although the app assured users that their data would remain confidential, it was revealed that access was granted to Google and Meta through Custom App Events (CAEs) transmitted via their respective Software Development Kits (SDKs) embedded in the Flo app.