Facebook president, founder, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg during an interview with Reuters at the University of Bogota on January 14. REUTERS/Jose Miguel Gomez The Supreme Court is hearing a strange-sounding but potentially far-reaching case Monday brought by a man who complained that the "people search" website Spokeo described him as better educated and wealthier than he actually was.

Thomas Robins filed a proposed class action in which he said Spokeo's incorrect listing hurt his job prospects and violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires consumer reporting agencies to ensure that information about people they report on as accurate.

A judge threw out the case because there was no evidence this actually hurt Robins. (As The New York Times noted, most of Spokeo's errors were actually favorable to Robins.)

Still, an appeals court revived the case. It ruled that Robins' complaints accusing Spokeo of violating a law were enough and that Robins didn't need to show "actual harm." Now, Spokeo will argue that the Supreme Court should throw the case out for good because Robins hasn't shown any "concrete harm."

The question the Supreme Court will consider Monday sounds arcane but could actually affect a lot of tech companies that handle people's personal information:

Whether Congress may confer Article III standing upon a plaintiff who suffers no concrete harm, and who therefore could not otherwise invoke the jurisdiction of a federal court, by authorizing a private right of action based on a bare violation of a federal statute.

If the Supreme Court says "yes" to this question, then consumers everywhere could sue internet companies over alleged violations of privacy and consumer data laws, as The Wall Street Journal noted after the high court agreed to take up the case in April. A "yes" answer would give consumers the right to file lawsuits over violations of federal law even if they couldn't show that, say, a violation of that law had cost them money.

"While the specific lawsuit concerns Spokeo, tech companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo are keeping a close eye on the case," The Wall Street Journal's Jacob Gershman said. "A single violation of the federal consumer law can go up to $1,000, which could translate into a much bigger figure in a class action."