US tech giant Meta, the company behind the social network Facebook, is paying $725 million (€683 million) to buy out a case users had brought in connection with controversial research firm Cambridge Analytica. This is evident from the judicial documents.
Users sued Facebook in 2018 after it emerged that Cambridge Analytica, a British research firm involved in Donald Trump’s 2016 US presidential campaign, had data on up to 87 million users of the social networking site. Trump’s team used that data to specifically target certain Facebook users. According to the complainants, sharing the data was illegal.
Meta had already announced in August that it had reached a settlement with the plaintiffs. However, details of the scheme were not yet known. It now appears that Meta is paying $725 million to close the case. A federal judge has yet to approve the settlement.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys have managed to gain increasing access to internal Facebook documents, which allegedly support allegations that the platform was doing too little to protect its users’ privacy. “We pursued a settlement because it is in the interest of our community and our shareholders,” Meta replies, noting that it has now changed its privacy policy.
According to Bloomberg Meta would risk spending hundreds of millions of dollars more if it actually got to a lawsuit and lost it. Also, with the deal, the group saves CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former chief operations officer Sheryl Sandberg from having to testify for hours.
