Meta, parent company of Facebook, has agreed to pay $725 million as settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit related to the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal.
This is the latest in payments by the company concerning the scandal that came to light in 2018. As the story goes, a little British company named Cambridge Analytica had illegally harvested the data of over 87 million of Facebook users, without their consent since 2014, and used it to manipulate them for political reasons.
Facebook was under fire for this major oversight, and for failing on an epic scale to protect data entrusted to them by its legions of users
Over the years, Facebook had denied culpability but has had to pay fines:
- $5 Billion to Federal Trade Commission over Cambridge Analytica scandal;
- $100 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for misleading investors;
- £500,000 fine to the UK for its role in the Cambridge Analytical Scandal
This latest fine is the largest recovery ever in a data privacy class action and the most Facebook has paid to settle a private class action.
Despite the fine, Meta still did not admit to any wrongdoing, maintaining that its consented to the practices and suffered no actual damages. According to Meta spokesperson Dina El-Kassaby Luce in a statement, the settlement was “in the best interest of its community and shareholders” and that the company has revamped its approach to privacy.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers said that about 250 million to 280 million people may be eligible for payments as part of the class action settlement. However the amount to be paid to individuals depends on the number of valid claims.
