Tech

Meta told to settle Cambridge Analytica scandal for $725 million


Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc has agreed to pay $725 million (approximately Rs 6,000) to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the social media giant of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access access the user’s personal information.

The proposed settlement, disclosed in court filings late Thursday, would settle a lengthy lawsuit prompted by revelations in 2018 that Facebook authorized the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access the data of 87 million users.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys called the proposed settlement the largest ever reached in a U.S. data privacy class action, and the most meta ever paid to settle a class action.

“This historic settlement will provide meaningful class relief in this complex and novel privacy lawsuit,” the plaintiffs’ lead attorneys, Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver, said in a statement. common father.

Meta did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge in San Francisco. The company said in a statement the settlement is “in the best interest of the community and our shareholders.”

“Over the past three years, we have improved our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive security program,” said Meta.

Cambridge Analytica, now defunct, worked for Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2016 and gained access to personal information from millions of Facebook accounts for the purposes of profiling and voter targeting.

Cambridge Analytica obtained that information without user consent from a researcher who was authorized by Facebook to deploy an application on the social media network that collected data from millions of users.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal then prompted government investigations into privacy practices, lawsuits, and a high-profile US congressional hearing where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was accused of fraud. criticized by lawmakers.

In 2019, Facebook agreed to pay $5 billion (about Rs 41,500 crore) to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation into its privacy practices and $100 million (about Rs 850 crore) to settled a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint that it misled investors about misuse of user data.

Investigations by the state attorney general are ongoing, and the company is fighting a lawsuit by the Washington, DC attorney general.

Thursday’s settlement settled complaints from Facebook users that the company violated a variety of federal and state laws by allowing app developers and business partners to collect personal data. their employees without their consent on a large scale.

The users’ attorneys allege that Facebook misled them into thinking they could retain control of their personal data, when in fact it gave thousands of outsiders priority access.

Facebook argues that its users have no legitimate privacy interest in the information they share with friends on the social network. But US District Judge Vince Chhabria called that view “too wrong” and in 2019 largely allowed the case to proceed.

© Thomson Reuters 2022


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