By Arjun Kharpal CNBC News
HalfFacebook’s parent company has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that the social networking giant granted third parties access to user data without their consent.
It’s “the largest recovery ever in a data privacy class-action lawsuit and the most Facebook has paid to settle a private class-action lawsuit,” said Keller Rohrback LLP, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, in a statement in court. deal.
The action was initiated in 2018 after Facebook disclosed such information from 87 million users were improperly shared with Cambridge Analyticaa consultant linked to former President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
The case was expanded to focus on Facebook’s general data sharing practices. The plaintiffs alleged that Facebook “allowed multiple third parties to access your content and information without your consent and that it failed to adequately monitor their access and use of that information,” according to the law firm behind the lawsuit.
Judges overseeing the case in the Northern District of California will need to approve the settlement.
“It’s the best for our community and our shareholders. Over the past three years, we’ve revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive security program,” a Meta spokesperson told CNBC. As part of the settlement, the company has not admitted to any wrongdoing.
A scandal that has sparked indignation around the world
The Cambridge Analytica scandal sparked global outrage and a host of regulators looking into Facebook’s data practices.
Following the revelations, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened an investigation into concerns that the social media company had violated the terms of a previous agreement with the agency, which required it to provide users with clear notifications when their data was shared with third parties.
[Se disparan las extorsiones a adolescentes que son engañados para enviar imágenes sexualmente explícitas de sí mismos]
In 2019, Facebook accepted a record payment of $5 billion with the FTC. It also agreed to shell out $100 million to settle a case around the same time with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations that the company made misleading disclosures about the risk of misuse of user data.
Cambridge Analytica, which closed following the allegations in 2018, has been controversial because data collected by Facebook has been used to advise political campaigns.
That year, the British channel Channel 4 News, filmed Cambridge Analytica executives suggesting that the company uses prostitutes, bribes, former spies and fake news to help candidates win votes around the world.
[Un pasajero de Uber asesina a su conductora en New Orleans y publica el video en Facebook, dicen las autoridades]
After the scandal, Facebook changed its name to Meta to reflect his growing ambitions to become leader of the metaverse, a term used to refer to virtual worlds.
Facebook, still one of the world’s largest social networks, is operated by Meta, but has seen its growth slow due to a slowdown in the advertising market, changes to Apple’s privacy rules for iOS, and growing competition from TikTok. .
