Dec 23 (Reuters) – Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc ( META.O ) has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accuses the social media giant of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, access users’ personal information.
The proposed settlement, which was announced in a court filing late Thursday, would resolve a long-running lawsuit sparked by revelations in 2018 that Facebook had allowed British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica to access data from up to 87 millions of users.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs called the proposed settlement the largest ever reached in a US data privacy class action and the most Meta has ever paid to settle a class action lawsuit.
“This landmark settlement will provide significant relief to the class in this complex and novel privacy case,” the plaintiffs’ lead attorneys, Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver, said in a joint statement.
Meta did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which is subject to approval by a federal judge in San Francisco. The company said in a statement that the settlement was “in the best interest of our community and shareholders.”
“Over the past three years we’ve revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program,” Meta said.
Cambridge Analytica, now defunct, worked on Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign and gained access to the personal information of millions of Facebook accounts for profiling and voter targeting purposes.
The logo of the Meta Platforms business group is seen in Brussels, Belgium, December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman
Cambridge Analytica obtained this information without users’ consent from a researcher who had been authorized by Facebook to deploy an app on its social media network that collected data from millions of its users.
The subsequent Cambridge Analytica scandal fueled government investigations into its privacy practices, lawsuits and a high-profile hearing in the US Congress where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was criticized by lawmakers.
In 2019, Facebook agreed to pay $5 billion to settle a Federal Trade Commission investigation into its privacy practices and $100 million to settle claims by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it misled investors on the improper use of user data.
Investigations by state attorneys general are ongoing, and the company is fighting a lawsuit from the Washington, D.C. attorney general
Thursday’s settlement resolved claims by Facebook users that the company violated various federal and state laws by allowing app developers and business partners to collect their personal data without their consent on a blanket basis.
Lawyers for the users alleged that Facebook misled them into thinking they could retain control over personal data, when in fact it allowed thousands of preferred outsiders to access it.
Facebook argued that its users have no legitimate privacy interest in the information they shared with friends on the social network. But U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria called that view “so wrong” and in 2019 largely allowed the case to move forward.
Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman
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Nate Raymond
Thomson Reuters
Nate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at nate.raymond@thomsonreuters.com.