Meta Platforms Inc., which owns Facebook, has agreed to pay $725 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit.Facebook is accused of illegally accessing the personal information of 87 million users without permission.
Meta still refuses to admit any wrongdoing despite agreeing to pay the massive sum. Facebook claims the company did nothing wrong as part of the settlement.
The problem began in 2018 when Facebook allowed the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access data of as many as 87 million users.
Lawyers said this payout from Facebook is the largest to ever be achieved in a breach of U.S. data privacy class action.
Lead lawyers Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver said, “This historic settlement will provide meaningful relief to the class in this complex and novel privacy case.”
Meta said that settling the lawsuit is “in the best interest of our community and shareholders.”
“Over the last three years we revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program,” Meta said.
In 2019, Facebook agreed to pay $5 billion to resolve a Federal Trade Commission probe into its privacy practices.
Facebook paid another $100 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims that it misled investors about the misuse of users’ data.
Facebook has argued its users have no legitimate privacy interest in information they shared with friends on social media.
In 2019, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said Facebook is “so wrong” by believing that users don’t have a privacy interest when sharing information on Facebook.
— Advertisement —More investigations into Facebook by state attorneys general are still ongoing.
Lawyers allege that Facebook has misled users into thinking they could keep control over personal data when in fact this information has been accessible to third parties.
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