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Facebook owner Meta settles lawsuit after data sales to third parties including Cambridge Analytica

By Nithya Bose in UK Business News, posted August 30, 2022

Meta has settled a lawsuit that found it fed private user data to third parties, including the infamous Cambridge Analytica.

The firm, which owns Facebook, was sued by users of the social media platform and has now confirmed it has come to an agreement in principle in the suit, but has not provided any details over what it has agreed to do.

The parties requested a 60-day stay of the action, which is being handled by the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Cambridge Analytica was blamed for inappropriately collecting and misusing Facebook user data.

It is a now-defunct British consulting firm that worked on former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Following the event, Facebook agreed to pay penalties in the US and the UK and to modify its privacy policies.

Neither the company nor Cambridge Analytica, which closed in 2018, has admitted any wrongdoing.

Facebook users' lawyers scheduled to interrogate Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg.

The company, then known as Facebook, agreed to pay a $5 billion fine to the Federal Trade Commission in 2019.

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The settlement called for the company's board to be restructured in order to improve the monitoring of privacy policies.

The FTC probe focused on whether the lapse violated a 2012 consent decree in which Facebook pledged to strengthen user privacy.

Following the 2019 settlement, Zuckerberg stated that he expected the FTC-imposed regulations on Facebook will "set a completely new standard for our industry."

Cambridge Analytica closed after the Facebook data scandal and other concerns about its political tactics, which are also said to have influenced voters in the UK referendum over leaving the European Union.

In the US, the corporation gained political consulting work by offering to utilize data to profile and influence voters with political messages.

It worked with numerous Republican presidential contenders, including Mr. Trump's campaign, in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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