Class Action Alleges HDR ‘Infiltrated’ Private Facebook Groups to Monitor Opposition to Highway Construction

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A Phoenix, Arizona resident alleges design firm HDR, Inc. has unlawfully observed and monitored without consent the communications and postings of members of the private Facebook groups Ahwatukee411 and Protecting Arizona’s Resources & Children (PARC), in an apparent effort to keep tabs on resistance to the construction of a highway set to cut through a local Native American community. 

The 17-page lawsuit alleges that HDR, unbeknownst to members of Ahwatukee411 and PARC, has since at least 2016 “infiltrated, monitored, wiretapped, and/or accessed” posts in the private Facebook groups, potentially through the use of fake social media profiles, as they relate to protests over the construction of a highway to cut through the Moahdak Do’ag Mountain, an area sacred to the local Native American community in Phoenix. 

The plaintiff asserts that neither she nor other group members believed, nor had reason to know, that their communications were being surveilled by “unconsented-to third-party actors” who were neither Ahwatukee residents nor persons whose interests were aligned with the PARC organization’s goals, much less a “corporation[] antagonistic to the interests of the Private Facebook Groups.” 

“What is known is that, again, neither Defendant nor its employees should have had access to the Private Facebook Groups, nor did the Group Members know Defendant had infiltrated the Private Facebook Groups nor consent to Defendant wiretapping their conversations,” the complaint alleges, claiming HDR’s conduct runs afoul of federal law and Facebook’s terms of service, which bar a user from accessing or collecting data using automated means or to which access is prohibited. 

The lawsuit says that HDR, in addition to its architectural and design services, also offers clients the services of its “strategic communications” team, which the suit says works to help manage the social and political risks associated with infrastructure development. A tool offered by HDR to accomplish this is the company’s “STRATA,” or “social listening,” service, which relies upon data-driven engagement beyond standard demographics, and tailors public involvement and decision-making approaches specifically to each project, the lawsuit relays. From the complaint: 

“The effect of this monitoring, Defendant claims, is saving its clients money: ‘Controversy is costly, both in reputation and in dollars. Social and political risk deserves attention at the planning stage of a project or program, where it can be carefully assessed and when there is time to develop strategies to mitigate or diminish risk.’ Such activity is known as ‘corporate insurgency.’” 

The suit claims that once HDR infiltrated the private groups, the employee-owned architecture and design firm generated an “influencer” report, which the complaint describes as an analysis of public sentiment on social media platforms. 

HDR, who’s supposedly built upward of 275 jails and prisons, is also alleged to have created a “geospatial analysis” that categorized certain communities, such as “ethnic enclaves,” “barrios urbanos,” “scholars and patriots” and “American dreamers.” According to the case, HDR accomplished its surveillance of the private Facebook groups by hiring employees and investigators with backgrounds in intelligence, in particular in geospatial and information management and strategic communications. 

The lawsuit says HDR’s STRATA team can generate a comprehensive web-based map showing the location of individuals who post on social media websites, as well as the post’s content, date and time and “sentiment.”

According to the lawsuit, Ahwatukee411, which boasts roughly 32,400 members, is a closed Facebook group wherein residents of Phoenix’s southern Ahwatukee Foothills neighborhood can privately discuss community issues. To join the group, a prospective member must fill out a questionnaire concerning their involvement in the Ahwatukee community and their interest in joining the group as it relates to the community, the case says. 

The Protecting Arizona’s Resources & Children group was formed in 2016 to protest the construction of the highway through the Moahdak Do’ag Mountain, and has roughly 930 members, the lawsuit says. 

The lawsuit looks to represent all members of the two private Facebook groups whose electronic communications were intercepted by HDR. 

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