Judge scrutinizes Facebook deal to end privacy lawsuit over ads

Child rights advocates tried to convince a U.S. judge that a Facebook legal settlement did not go far enough to keep content created by minors out of the hands of advertisers.

Five plaintiffs filed a proposed class action against Facebook in 2011, saying the social networking giant's "Sponsored Stories" program shared user's "likes" of certain advertisers without paying them or allowing them to opt out. The case has highlighted tension between privacy concerns and Facebook's drive to monetize user content. Under the terms of a proposed settlement, Facebook will pay $20 million to compensate class members, and promised to give users more control over how their content is shared - changes which plaintiff lawyers estimate to be worth up to $145 million. Facebook charged advertisers nearly $234 million for Sponsored Stories between January 2011 and August 2012, court filings show. U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco preliminarily approved the settlement last year, but he still must give it a final sign-off.