Yahoo Finance MP Damian Collins' emails to be handed to Facebook
A judge in Silicon Valley has ordered emails between an MP and lawyers for a company suing Facebook to be handed over to the social media giant.
Judge Raymond Swope of the Superior Court of California said that David Godkins and Stuart Gross must release communications from Damian Collins, the chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee, as well as correspondence with journalists. Mr Godkins and Mr Gross are representing app developer Six4Three, which is suing Facebook for damaging its business.
During a trip to London in November, Six4Three founder Ted Kramer was ordered by Parliament to hand over private Facebook documents related to the lawsuit to aid the DCMS committee’s investigation into the social network.
Mr Collins then proceeded to publish 250 pages of Facebook files online, including details of how the technology giant collected information without its users knowing. Facebook has suggested the trip was a setup in order to bring the files, which have been legally sealed in the US, into the public domain via Mr Collins.
After returning to the US Mr Kramer and his business partner Thomas Scaramellino had their laptops and phones confiscated by order of the judge. Facebook’s lawyers claim Mr Kramer had been “plotting” to release these documents in cahoots with journalists for two years. Mr Kramer has denied the allegations, saying that "there was no plan" to leak documents and that he was taken “by surprise” when served with a parliamentary order while in a hotel in London.
On Monday, the judge ordered that Mr Godkins and Mr Gross disclose all communications with “all media” and in addition to that, the UK government including the House of Commons Digital, Culture Media and Sport Committee, or members of the parliament or House of Commons to be disclosed "no later than January 7”.
During the hearing at Justice Hall, Redwood City, Judge Swope also ruled that Mr Kramer and Mr Scaramellino, neither of whom were present, delete all the Facebook files they still have on their person. Both were told to travel from their homes in New York and Boston to attend a solicitor’s office in San Francisco on Wednesday where both their own representatives and Facebook’s legal team would watch as they manually deleted the “50,000” confidential and potentially damaging Facebook files were deleted to avoid any more leaks.
A digital forensic scientist is currently preserving the documents, which will be used in evidence at later trial.
Six4Three made an app called Pikinis, which helped to find friends wearing swimwear in their Facebook photos. It claims Facebook harmed its business when a change to its website stopped apps from accessing some user data.
If Mr Kramer and Mr Scaramellino are found to have any confidential Facebook data on any device or account after December 19 they risk contempt of court and face a maximum of five years incarceration.
Mr Collins did not respond to a request for comment.
