Before IPO, Facebook Takes the Fight Against Clickjacking to the Courts

Facebook is turning to the courts to fight the "clickjacking" scourge which sometimes plagues the social networking site. The news comes as rumors are circulating that Facebook's initial public offering (IPO) could be happening as early as this week, with a possible offering of up to $10 billion in shares.

If you've ever clicked on a Facebook link only to have that same link get instantly (and seemingly magically) sent out to your entire network of friends without your approval, you have been clickjacked.

Facebook's finally saying "enough is enough." It's accusing Washington-based marketing company Adscend Media of the unwanted spam-causing practice in a lawsuit announced Thursday.

"Security is an arms race," said Facebook general counsel Ted Ullyot said in a post on the site. "And that's why Facebook is committed to constantly improving our consumer safeguards while pursuing and supporting civil and criminal consequences for bad actors."

The Attorney General of Washington state filed a separate lawsuit, also accusing Adscend Media of clickjacking.

"We don't 'like' schemes that illegally trick Facebook users into giving up personal information or paying for unwanted subscription services through spam," said Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna with a nod to one of Facebook's most well-known features. "We applaud Facebook for devoting significant technical and legal resources to finding and stopping scams as soon as possible, and often before they even start. We're proud to join forces in order to protect Washington consumers."

In a clickjacking, users are presented with some kind of enticing material, such as a too-good-to-be-true promotion. The clickjackers add code to these links that hide the "like" button in the link itself. Once a user clicks the clickjacking link, it's too late — the material's already been "liked" and shared to the user's entire social network.

The Washington Attorney General's Consumer High-Tech Protection unit alleged that Adscend's clickjacking practices netted the company up to $1.2 millon each month.

Adscend Media denies the claims.

"At no time did we engage in the activity alleged in the complaints," said the ad company in a statement released Friday.

"Adscend Media will provide a vigorous defense against these false claims. Adscend Media strictly complies with its legal obligations under federal and state law. We are undertaking an investigation to determine whether any of Adscend Media's affiliates engaged in the activity alleged by the Attorney General's office and Facebook. If they did, we are fully certain that the activity was conducted without the company's knowledge."

Does this lawsuit have anything to do with Facebook's maybe-soon IPO? Perhaps. After all, too much spam could cause Facebook's value to drop.

"In the run-up to IPO, we're sure to see Facebook doing more to present itself as company that is fighting security threats like this," Internet security firm Sophos told the BBC.

In February of last year, a major clickjacking scam offered free Southwest Airlines tickets to users. Hapless individuals who clicked that link instantly spammed all their friends with the faux-promotion.

According to Facebook, 4% of posts on the social network are spam.

What do you think of Facebook's efforts to fight against clickjacking? Sound off in the comments below.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ilbusca