Facebook turns tables on bikini app maker over document leaks

Facebook Inc. has turned the tables on a company that it accuses of leaking confidential documents that portray the social networking giant exploiting user data to bolster its bottom line.

A California state judge concluded evidence shows there was “crime or fraud” involved in the disclosure of Facebook records that were sealed in a lawsuit and wound up being publicized by a committee of the U.K. Parliament. Facebook can now seek access to emails from the developer of a now-defunct app for finding photos of friends in bikinis and its lawyers who sued the social network giant in 2015. Those communications would ordinarily be kept private under attorney-client confidentiality rules.