The owner of Facebook, Meta, has agreed to pay $725 million (£600 million) to resolve a lawsuit over a data breach linked to the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
The lengthy lawsuit alleged that the social media giant permitted third parties, including the British company, to access the personal information of Facebook users.
According to attorneys, the requested amount is the greatest in a US data privacy class action.
Meta, which did not admit wrongdoing, stated that it had “revamped” its privacy strategy during the past three years.
The corporation stated in a statement that the settlement was “in the best interest of our community and stockholders.”
“We look forward to continuing to develop services that customers enjoy and trust while putting privacy first.”
Software expert James Ball told that it was “not a surprise” that Meta had to agree to a large settlement, but that the amount was “not that much” for the tech giant.
“It’s less than a tenth of what it spent on creating ‘the metaverse’ in a single year,” he claimed.
“Meta probably won’t be too upset about this arrangement, but it should serve as a caution to social network businesses that mistakes may be quite expensive.”
The proposed settlement, which was announced in a late-Thursday court filing, is subject to the approval of a San Francisco federal judge.
In a statement, the plaintiffs’ lead attorneys Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver stated, “This historic settlement will provide real relief to the class in this complicated and unusual privacy issue.”
The case was brought on behalf of a large proposed class of Facebook users whose personal information on the social network was improperly disclosed to other parties.
According to the judgment document, the class size is between 250 and 280 million people, representing all Facebook users in the United States between the “class period” of 24 May 2007 to 22 December 2022.
It is unclear how the plaintiffs would request their portion of the settlement.
Janis Wong, a privacy and ethical researcher at The Alan Turing Institute, stated that if each individual opted to file a claim, it would only cost two or three dollars per person.
A second hearing about the settlement is scheduled for 2 March 2023.
Even while this $725 million settlement does not apply to UK users, earlier this year a competition law expert filed a multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit against Meta for the misuse of user data during the Cambridge Analytica period.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal of the United Kingdom will likely provide additional information on this matter in the new year, she said.
The 2018 Cambridge Analytica privacy issue revolved around the collection of personal information from Facebook users by third-party applications.
The now-defunct consultancy firm worked for Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign, using personal data from millions of US Facebook accounts for voter profiling and targeting.
This information was taken without user consent from a researcher who was permitted by Facebook to deploy an app that harvested data from millions of Facebook members.
Facebook believes up to 87 million users’ information was inappropriately shared with the political consulting firm.
The issue spurred federal investigations into Facebook’s privacy practices, which resulted in lawsuits and a high-profile US congressional hearing where Mark Zuckerberg was questioned.
Facebook agreed in 2019 to pay $5 billion to settle a Federal Trade Commission investigation into its privacy practices.
In addition, the internet titan paid $100 million to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it deceived investors on the misuse of customer data.
Investigations by state attorneys general continue, and the business is contesting a legal action brought by the attorney general for the District of Columbia.
