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In the largest settlement to date, Facebook owner Meta has agreed to pay $725 million to settle charges for using customer data without consent.
The class action lawsuit stemmed from the 2018 revelation that Facebook gave Cambridge Analytica, a British political consultancy, access to key data on up to 87 million users. Cambridge Analytica, which has since ceased trading, reportedly used the data for voter profiling and targeting for several campaigns in 2016.
According to Reuters, the lawyers presenting the class action lawsuit say $725 million is the largest ever seen in a US data privacy case. It is also the most Meta has paid to resolve such a lawsuit.
“This historic settlement will provide meaningful relief to the class in this complex and novel privacy case,” the plaintiffs’ lead attorneys, Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver, said in a statement.
Meta admits no wrongdoing and the settlement is subject to approval by a federal judge. Plus Meta continues to face a lawsuit from the Washington, DC Attorney General, plus investigations by state attorneys general.
Facebook has been before a $5 billion fine on the matter by the Federal Trade Commission.
In a 2018 speech, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he had “worked to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Four years later, it’s still not clear what the company got out of the experience.
Around the same time, Apple’s Tim is cooking criticized the privacy failure, saying it meant the time had passed when companies were allowed to fully self-regulate.
“I think the best regulation is not regulation, but self-regulation”, he said in response to a question about Facebook. “However, I think we are further along here.”