Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that said the social media giant let Cambridge Analytica and other third parties access user information.
A long-running lawsuit stemming from revelations in 2018 that Facebook had granted Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm, access to the data of as many as 87 million users would be settled by the proposed settlement, which was made public in a court filing late on Thursday, December 22.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys described the proposed settlement as the most Meta has ever paid to settle a class action lawsuit and the largest ever achieved in a US data privacy class action.
In a joint statement, Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver, the plaintiffs’ lead attorneys, stated, “This historic settlement will provide meaningful relief to the class in this complex and novel privacy case.”
As part of the settlement, which still needs to be approved by a federal judge in San Francisco, Meta did not admit any wrongdoing. The settlement was “in the best interest of our community and shareholders,” the company stated in a statement.
Meta stated, “We revamped our approach to privacy over the last three years and implemented a comprehensive privacy program.”
The now-defunct Cambridge Analytica worked for Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign and gained access to the personal information of millions of Facebook accounts for the purpose of targeting and profiling voters.
A researcher who had been permitted by Facebook to deploy an app on its social media network that harvested data from millions of its users provided Cambridge Analytica with that information without the consent of those users.
The subsequent scandal sparked government investigations into Cambridge Analytica’s privacy practices, lawsuits, and a high-profile US congressional hearing in which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was questioned by lawmakers.
In 2019, Facebook agreed to pay US$5 billion to settle a probe into its privacy practices by the Federal Trade Commission and US$100 million to settle claims made by the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States that it misled investors regarding the misuse of user data.
Examinations by state lawyers general are progressing, and the organization is battling a claim by the principal legal officer for Washington, DC.
The settlement reached on Thursday settled claims made by Facebook users that the company broke a number of federal and state laws by allowing app developers and business partners to frequently harvest their personal data without their consent.
The users’ lawyers claimed that Facebook allowed thousands of preferred outsiders to gain access to their personal data, despite misleading them into believing they could maintain control.
Facebook argued that information that users shared with friends on social media does not have a legitimate privacy interest. However, that viewpoint was deemed “so wrong” by US District Judge Vince Chhabria, and in 2019, he largely permitted the case to proceed.
