Facebook’s parent company is cashing in to end the Cambridge Analytica scandal. According to information reported by Reuters, Meta has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing the social media giant of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access its users’ personal data.
The amount of the proposed settlement was revealed Thursday evening in a court document, reports Reuters.
“This historic settlement will provide significant relief to the class in this complex and unprecedented privacy case,” plaintiffs’ lead attorneys Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver said in a joint statement.
Meta believes the settlement is “in the best interests of our community and our shareholders,” a statement read. And to add that during “the past three years, we have revised our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive program of protection of privacy”.
Judicial soap opera
This summer, the social network reached an agreement in principle in the context of this lawsuit. As a reminder, the plaintiffs were seeking damages following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which broke in 2018.
The complaint alleges that Facebook violated consumer privacy laws by sharing personal data of its users with third parties – including UK political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which has since closed.
At the time, up to 87 million Facebook users had been affected by the Cambridge Analytica incident, which saw data gathered from a personality test shared with companies in a bid to profile voters ahead of the British election deadlines.
In 2019, Facebook agreed to pay a fine of $ 5 billion imposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the equivalent of the American competition authority, for breaches in the protection of the personal data of its users.