Four years ago, it emerged that Facebook had exposed the personal information of millions of users without their consent. Over the weekend, Meta settled the privacy lawsuit. But the Meta-Cambridge Analytica debacle is far from over.
A court filing reveals that Meta has “in principle” settled for an undisclosed sum a long-running lawsuit that claimed it illegally shared user data with third parties such as Cambridge Analytica. The settlement puts an end to the class action in the San Francisco federal court, which was seeking damages.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal saw the data of millions of Facebook users harvested globally by the now-defunct consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, without their consent, through an app called This is Your Digital Life. The scandal has seen widespread media coverage since 2018.
As Reuters reports, the four-year-old lawsuit alleged that Facebook (now Meta) violated consumer privacy laws by sharing the personal data of users with third parties such as Cambridge Analytica.
The Guardian, which actually broke the story back in 2018, touched on the timing of the settlement. They wrote that the timing of the potential settlement would prevent Zuckerberg and Meta’s outgoing chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, from being made to testify during up to six hours of questioning by plaintiffs’ lawyers next month.
This isn’t the only court battle the Zuckerberg empire is dealing with regarding Cambridge Analytica, however. Back home, Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk kicked off her battle with Meta over the Cambridge Analytica saga back in 2020. Earlier this year, she received approval to keep going.
The OAIC began investigating the case in April 2018 when it was discovered that Facebook had exposed the personal data of 311,000 Australians to Cambridge Analytica. This information was allegedly sold for political profiling and also used by other third parties, as it was alleged overseas.
87 million Facebook users worldwide were affected by the breach.