Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has agreed to invest $725 million (approx.
“The proposed $725 million settlement is the largest recovery ever won in a privacy class action, and the largest Facebook ever paid to settle a private class action lawsuit,” Keller Rohrback, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, said in a court filing late Thursday.
The lawsuit was filed in 2018 after Facebook announced it had collected and shared the information of around 87 million users Cambridge Analyticaa political consulting firm associated with the former president’s 2016 campaign donald trump.
The consultancy reportedly used the data for the purpose of profiling voters and targeting political advertising.
The court filing states that “Facebook significantly changed the practices that led to the plaintiffs’ allegations” and “substantially improved its ability to restrict and monitor how third parties collect and use Facebook users’ information.” “.
The proposed settlement allows for no wrongdoing and is subject to approval by a judge in the Northern District of California.
In response to the news, a spokesman for Meta CNBC said: “We have sought a settlement as it is in the best interests of our community and our shareholders. Over the last three years we have revised our approach to data protection and implemented a comprehensive data protection program.”
Meta said it has “changed meaningfully” its data-sharing practices since the 2018 scandal and no longer allows third parties access to the same data about users.
