It has been front and center this week as some previously redacted documents from that lawsuit are starting to become public.
Six4Threes lawsuit came about because the company was upset that Facebook changed its Graph API, which previously let developers see Facebook data from users who signed up for their app, but also data from all of that users friends.
The story took center stage this week when the U.K.s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which is investigating Facebook on issues related to spreading disinformation, acquired those documents from Six4Three founder Ted Kramer, who was ordered to hand them over Monday while visiting the U.K.
The company has spent much of this year in damage-control mode, and a large part of those efforts have been to convince people that the company truly values their privacy. Any internal emails that show Facebook, especially its top executives, dismissing this notion would be another blow to the companys reputation.
It seems possible that these documents could also cause legal problems for Facebook if anything in them contradicts what its executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have shared with lawmakers as part of public testimony.
The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that some of the documents show that Facebook employees discussed charging partners to access Facebooks APIs basically selling access to Facebook user data.
Reporters at Wired and Ars Technica also discovered how to decipher some redacted portions of the documents, which confirm what the Wall Street Journal reported.
Original article