Winklevoss Twins Drop Lawsuit Against Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg
In 2008 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, more commonly referred to as the Winklevoss Twins, a check for $200 million after they claimed Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from their ConnectU platform which he was hired to work on during his time at Harvard University, a settlement that we thought would end the dispute, fast forward three years later and the brothers have dropped their second lawsuit which was filed in May 2011.
In their newest lawsuit the brothers claimed that Zuckerberg and his Facebook team in 2008 highly undervalued the worth of the company, leaving money on the table that the brothers had hoped to collect.
After fighting for more cash the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals noted:
“At some point, litigation must come to an end. That point has now been reached.”
Not willing to take no for an answer the brothers soon afterwards filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court before deciding to finally drop their fight with Facebook.
Tags : Facebook, facebook lawsuit, mark zuckerberg, winklevoss twins
Posted: June 23, 2011
Jun 29, 2012
Did the Winklevoss twins get paid to keep quiet about these facebook details submitted to S.E.C.:
[Excerpt]
In the context of prior debriefings, I write to inquire about the reporting of revenues by listed companies from the sale of client information to information gathering companies like IRI and A.C. Nielsen, among others.
I previously provided certified testimony confirming large retail chains sell client information to both Information Resources, Inc. and A.C. Nielsen, among others. Indeed, late last year I furnished S.E.C. with the following certified declaration testimony:
● The information … provided to IRI and Nielsen, on a weekly basis, is based on the proceeding week …;.
● It is sent to IRI and Nielsen on a magnetic tape through the regular mail;.
● Chains … obtain from IRI and Nielsen, based on data provided, reports that show unit or dollar share for a particular product for a particular period.
Putting aside that these are the data elements required to implement an overall weighted average price fixing program (“within a few points” schedule), I previously explained that listed companies neither identify nor report to S.E.C. the figures involved in IRI and A.C. Nielsen contracts. I have yet to receive an update on this whistle-blowing matter.
Directly related, Facebook’s S.E.C. report does not identify any revenues from sales of client data to IRI, A.C. Nielsen or any one else. It merely states, “We generate a substantial majority of our revenue from advertising.” Does S.E.C. require only the reporting of “a substantial majority” of revenues or does it require “all revenues” to be reported? I find this detail material as Mark Z. is soliciting me to buy his stock/company.
Private profile data is collected, organized, via software programs, and sold:
10. The key to Facebook’s success was to convince people to create unique, individualized profiles with such personal information as employment history and political and religious affiliations ….
12. Facebook’s enormous financial success is the result of … its huge repository of personal data provided by users.
12. As Facebook explained in its recent Registration Statement, “Advertisers can engage with more than 900 million monthly active users (MAUs) on Facebook or subsets of our users based on information they have chosen to share with us such as their age, location, gender, or interests.
12. We offer advertisers a unique combination of reach, relevance, social context … to enhance value ….
13. Facebook is driven to continue to find new and creative ways to leverage its access to users’ data in order to sustain its phenomenal growth (see, e.g., Registration Statement at 88-91, 99-100).
14. Although Facebook does not require its members to pay a monetary subscription fee, membership is not free. Instead, Facebook conditions its membership upon users providing sensitive and valuable personal information to Facebook upon registration, including name, birth date, gender and email address.
Facebook tracks client web movements, which data is assimilated and sold:
Session cookies are set when you log into Facebook and they include data like.
your unique Facebook user ID. They are directly associated with your Facebook.
account. When you log out of Facebook, the session cookies are supposed to be.
deleted.
Tracking cookies – also known as persistent cookies – don’t expire when you leave your Facebook account. Facebook sets one tracking cookie known as ‘datr’ when you visit Facebook.com, regardless of whether or not you actually have an account.
This cookie sends data back to Facebook every time you make a request of.
Facebook.com, such as when you load a page with an embedded Facebook ‘like’.
button. This tracking takes place regardless of whether you ever interact with a.
Facebook ‘like’ button. In effect, Facebook is getting details of where you go on the Internet.
When you leave Facebook without logging out and then browse the web, you have both tracking cookies and session cookies. Under those circumstances, Facebook knows whenever you load a page with embedded content from Facebook (like a Facebook ‘like’ button) and also can easily connect that data back to your individual Facebook profile.