Facebook on Friday was sued over its user of tracking cookies, with those who filed the suit accusing the social-networking site of violating federal wiretap and electronic communications laws, among other things.

Facebook on Friday was sued over its user of tracking cookies, with those who filed the suit accusing the social-networking site of violating federal wiretap and electronic communications laws, among other things.

The suit, filed in California district court by six Facebook users in Illinois, Hawaii, Virginia, and New Jersey, asks the court for damages, as well as an order that would require Facebook to stop installing cookies that track users after they log out.

"We believe this complaint is without merit and we will fight it vigorously," a Facebook spokesman said in a statement.

At issue are Internet cookies, or little bits of data collected about your Internet activity. They can be usefullike remembering passwords and settings on sites that you surf to frequentlybut about targeted advertising and how much data is really collected. That concern extended to Facebook last week when blogger and hacker Nik Cubrilovic that Facebook can track your Web activity outside Facebook.com even if you have signed out of the service.

"Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit. The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions," Cubrilovic wrote.

Facebook later for several of the offending cookies, but insisted that users' personal information was not compromised in any way.

Facebook still collects certain cookies after logout. Those that remain are there primarily for security reasons, according to Facebook and Cubrilovic. A cookie known as "datr," for example, helps identify suspicious login activity, while another called "lu," protects those using public computers, according to Facebook. "These cookies, by the very purpose they serve, uniquely identify the browser being usedeven after logout. As a user, you have to take Facebook at their word that the purpose of these cookies is only for what is being described," Cubrilovic said last week.

The lawsuit, however, claims that any data collection after logout is a violation of the Federal Wiretap Act, the Stored Electronic Communication Act (SECA), and the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Wiretap laws, for example, prohibit the willful interception of any oral, wire, or electronic communications without permission. According to the suit, intercepting cookies falls under the electronic communications umbrella.

Placing those cookies on a computer, meanwhile, is accessing stored communication without authorization, which violates SECA, while accessing a computer used for interstate commerce or communication violates the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the suit said.

Reps. Edward Markey and Joe Barton and several consumers groups have also to examine the issue.

Lawsuits of this nature are nothing new, however. In recent months, whenever a privacy snafu at a major company has made headlines, a class-action lawsuit has been filed within days.

After the Wall Street Journal published a December report that found that iPhone apps distributed more personal data without the users' permission than Android apps, Apple was suedin , , and .

After all the headlines over smartphone location tracking, meanwhile, Apple was hit with an in April, and . Google was also over Android's location services, and faced complaints over Windows Phone 7.

Late last month, however, a the app-related privacy lawsuit against Apple, arguing that the plaintiffs failed to prove that Apple and its products caused them any harm.

For more, see PCMag's "When Facebook Gets Creepy" slideshow below.