Facebook Owner to Settle Class-Action Suit Over Cambridge Analytica Scandal – According to a court filing, Facebook owner Meta would pay $725 million (£600 million) to plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit alleging privacy violations related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The settlement will bring an end to a long lawsuit over the disclosures that the political consultancy obtained the data of tens of millions of Facebook users without their permission and used it to target political advertisements.
The lawyers leading the action, Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver, stated, “This historic settlement will provide meaningful relief to the class in this complex and novel privacy case.” In a court filing, they stated that the settlement “would be the largest data privacy or data breach class action settlement ever achieved in the United States,” 10% higher than the previous record, which was also awarded to Facebook for signing up users without their consent for facial recognition services.
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In a statement, a Meta representative stated: “We pursued a settlement as it’s in the best interest of our community and shareholders. Over the last three years we revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy programme. We look forward to continuing to build services people love and trust with privacy at the forefront.” The company did not admit to wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which still needs to be approved by a judge.
The case centered on charges that Facebook violated state and federal regulations by failing to prohibit app developers from systematically acquiring user data. The lawsuit said that users were mislead into believing that the corporation gave them control over their personal data, when in reality “Facebook, despite its claims to restrict access, continued to permit a preferred list of app developers to access the information of users’ friends.”
Facebook’s defense centered on the claim that users could not expect absolute privacy for information they had already posted on the site with the knowledge that it would be shown to their friends. As a result, the company argued, the users had suffered no “tangible” harm. That was rejected in 2019 by Judge Vince Chhabria, who said: “Facebook’s motion to dismiss is littered with assumptions about the degree to which social media users can reasonably expect their personal information and communications to remain private. Facebook’s view is so wrong.”
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“Sharing information with your social media friends does not categorically eliminate your privacy interest in that information.” At the core of the case are the revelations around Cambridge Analytica, which harvested the data of tens of millions of Facebook users by partnering with a personality quiz operation and using the Facebook API to build extensive profiles on individuals’ behavior and personalities. Facebook discovered the operation in 2015, but it was only revealed to the public in March 2018, when an Observer investigation uncovered the operation’s involvement in the US election.
