Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a long-running class action lawsuit accusing the company of allowing Cambridge Analytica and other third parties access to private user information and misleading users about its privacy practices.
The proposed settlement would put an end to a legal battle that began four years ago, shortly after the company revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm that worked with the Trump campaign, had obtained the private information of up to 87 million Facebook users. The data leak sparked a worldwide scandal for Facebook, drawing the attention of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.
Millions of pages of documents were obtained from Facebook and other related parties, as well as hundreds of hours of depositions from dozens of current and former Facebook employees.
The users settling with Facebook called the agreement the “largest recovery ever achieved in a data privacy class action and the most Facebook has ever paid to resolve a private class action” in a motion to approve the settlement filed Thursday. They estimated that between 250 and 280 million people could be eligible for class action settlement payments.
The agreement is subject to approval by a judge, who will hear the motion in March.
“We pursued a settlement because it is best for our community and shareholders,” said Meta spokesperson Dina Luce in a statement. “Over the last three years, we revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program. We look forward to continuing to build services that people love and trust while keeping their privacy in mind.”
As part of the settlement, Meta did not admit wrongdoing. The users who brought the suit cited changes made by Facebook in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica breach, such as restricting third-party access to user data and improving communications with users about how their data is collected and shared, in their motion to approve the settlement.
The Cambridge Analytica leak began with a psychology professor harvesting data on millions of Facebook users via a personality test app, then giving it to a service promising to use vague and sophisticated techniques to influence voters during a high-stakes election in which the winning presidential candidate won by a narrow margin in several key states.
A 2020 report by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office cast serious doubt on Cambridge Analytica’s capabilities, claiming that many of them had been exaggerated. However, the improper sharing of Facebook data set off a chain of events that resulted in investigations and lawsuits.
The scandal sparked a global outcry, prompting hearings, an apology tour by Zuckerberg, and various platform changes. In 2019, Facebook agreed to a $5 billion privacy settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission and a $100 million settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over claims that it misled investors about the risks of user data misuse.
