Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California floated the idea Monday as an avenue that could expedite a proposed class action over claims the social network breached its privacy guidelines when Facebook apps gathered unauthorized data from users indirectly through friends.

Chhabria said that tapping into the documents provided in other regulatory inquiries, such as the Federal Trade Commission probe earlier this year, would allow plaintiffs' counsel to say, "Here are the 10 categories of documents shared with the FTC, we would like the first five."