Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has agreed to settle the Cambridge Analytica lawsuit, which accuses the social network platform of allowing third parties, including the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access user data for $725 million.
The lawsuit began in 2018 when Facebook was accused of sharing the personal data of over 87 million users with Cambridge Analytica, which is now defunct, but, back in 2016, was working with former US President Donald Trump on his presidential campaign. The personal information of millions of Facebook users was used for voter profiling and targeting, that too, without users’ consent.
$725 million to end the 4-year-old lawsuit
The revelations initiated a series of investigations, lawsuits, and hearings, with Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (earlier known as Facebook), being grilled by congress.
In 2019, to resolve the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation, Facebook agreed to pay $5 billion and $100 million to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to dispose of the claim that it misled investors about misusing user data.
The settlement was reached in a case by Facebook users that alleged that the company violated numerous federal and state laws by sharing their personal data without their consent with third-party app developers and businesses.
The $725 million settlement covers an estimated 250 to 280 million Facebook users, according to the court filing. However, it is still not decided how much amount each user will receive, as it depends on how many would submit valid claims for their share of the settlement.
The settlement has yet to be approved and will be sent to a federal judge in the San Francisco division of the Northern District of California court.
Meta has not accepted any wrongdoing and said it “revamped the approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program.”