Boston, MA 02/06/2014 (wallstreetpr) – At a time when Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is in the news for the right reasons, having bought NaturalMotion, which is the brain behind Clumsy Ninja, one of the most popular online games, for more than $500 million, the company needs to put its house in order. Zynga now faces the not-so-pleasant news that users of its games on Facebook, intend to revive the lawsuits they filed against these two companies claiming breach of privacy. According to these lawsuits, Zynga and Facebook exposed the identities of its users to third parties, and that this was done without their consent.
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) cannot keep avoiding or running away from this sort of news in the hope that it will fizzle out or disappear on its own. The fact that users are contemplating reviving these cases ought to demonstrate to Zynga that the lawsuits are probably here to stay. Some of the largest corporations in the US, such as Citigroup and JP Morgan, have faced worse lawsuits and had to do something about them. Some analysts believe that Zynga could be hiding behind Facebook, hoping to act only if the biggest social media site in the world also opts to do something.
It is instructive that these lawsuits were filed in 2010 by the same plaintiffs, only to be dismissed a year later in 2011. It is unclear what might have convinced the plaintiffs to revive these cases, even after the courts had ruled that they were misplaced, and without merit. One thing that is clear here is the fact that the plaintiffs believe that the issues they raised forced the two companies, Zynga and Facebook, to introduce new privacy policies and practices changes on their platforms, and that these changes instituted by the two are due to the case filed in 2010.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) continues to see a huge increase in privacy lawsuits filed against it. As the social media site keeps growing, users are discovering that they reveal a higher amount of personal information on certain features found on this social media giant, such as on Zynga games. At some point, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has to fight these cases on its own, instead of waiting to see which direction Facebook will take before preparing its own defense. Zynga cannot afford to let these cases keep rearing their head in court, lest it has no problem paying off huge amounts in settlements.
There are times when it is much better for a company such as Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) to think of better ways of settling these cases before they keep growing. The more time these cases spend in court, the more people will keep looking for mistakes done by Zynga in terms of divulging personal information for monetary gain, and use such information to file lawsuits in court. Zynga may end up paying huge sums of money to settle this matter before court. Alternatively, it may need to think of settling the matter out of court to avoid the resultant issues that may crop up later.
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is making great strides in turning its financial situation around, and the last thing it needs right now, is to be hauled before the courts to answer charges related to privacy issues.
