Facebook has found itself in more trouble stemming from its controversial Beacon advertisment system, this time in the form of a class-action suit

Tuesday, a class-action suit was filed against Facebook for their alleged user privacy violations caused by Facebook’s Beacon back in late 2007. Beacon was originally designed to collect data on users from external affiliate websites, such as renting a movie from Blockbuster.com, allowing those Facebook users to then share their online activities with friends. Privacy advocates were quick to react, as there was no easy way of opting out of the program and users didn’t want their activities being shared without their expressed permission.

After getting quite the negative reaction to Beacon by users, Facebook changed Beacon so that any user information transmitted to Facebook from affiliate sites would need approval from the user before it would be published. Privacy issues were still rampant though, as personal data was allegedly still being transmitted to Facebook, such as eBay purchases, despite a user choosing not to publish them or even being a member of Facebook. These claims were allegedly shown to be true, despite Facebook denying the same claims. Shortly afterwards, Facebook apologized for the mess, and reworked Beacon to be an opt-in program, with the ability to turn Beacon off completely if desired.

While 44 sites initially partnered with Facebook, some company’s, such as Coca-Cola, decided not to get involved with Beacon once they became aware it was an opt-out program, rather than opt-in. The class-action suit is asking that any data collected without user knowledge be deleted, any profit from illegal means be returned, and restitution be awarded to those affected. Estimates say there were tens of thousands who were affected during the fiasco.