(Reuters) – Meta Platforms, parent company of Facebook, has agreed to pay $725 million (683.70 million euros) to end a class action lawsuit accusing the social network of letting third parties, including the consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, access the personal data of its users.
This draft agreement to settle this dispute dating back several years appears in court documents made public Thursday evening.
This class action lawsuit was triggered following revelations in 2018 that Facebook had let Cambridge Analytica access the data of 87 million users.
According to plaintiffs’ attorneys, the proposed amount is the largest ever awarded in a U.S. data privacy class action lawsuit and the largest Meta has ever paid to resolve a class action lawsuit.
“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 did not admit wrongdoing under the deal, which is subject to the approval of a federal judge in San Francisco. The company said in a statement that the settlement is “in the best interest of our community and our shareholders.”
“Over the past three years, we have revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program,” Meta said.
Cambridge Analytica, which has since filed for bankruptcy, was later suspected of using the data in election campaigns, including that of Donald Trump in 2016. The company accessed the personal information of millions of Facebook accounts for voter profiling and targeting purposes.
The ensuing scandal fueled government investigations into Cambridge Analytica’s privacy practices, legal action and a high-profile hearing before a Senate committee.
(Written by Nate Raymond in Boston, French version Bertrand Boucey and Augustin Turpin, edited by Myriam Rivet and Blandine Hénault)