It’s been four years since the scandal Cambridge Analytica it overwhelmed the offices of Meta, which was still called Facebook at the time. Mark Zuckerberg’s company has now reached a settlement that ends the class action lawsuit against him. A $725 million dealthe most expensive ever for a class action.
If you don’t know the story, the now defunct Cambridge Analytica company was accused of exploiting i personal data of about 87 million Facebook users. Data provided by the same social platform. This was compounded by the fact that Cambridge Analytica was in charge of managing the presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. The company had in fact used the personal information collected for the 2016 election campaigns.
The scandal emerged two years later, in 2018, following investigations by the New York Times and the Guardian. Journalistic investigations that were made possible by the informant Christopher Wylie.
Cambridge Analytica: la class action contro Meta
The wave has obviously also and above all swept over Facebook, guilty of violating federal and state laws, allowing third-party companies to collect users’ personal data without consent. Today’s deal partially puts an end to the matteras Meta has accepted the payment of the exorbitant amount, but rejects the charges to have committed illegal actions.
“Over the past three years, we’ve revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program,” Meta said in a press release, adding that the deal “was in the best interest of our community and shareholders.” The lawyers of the plaintiffs, on the other hand, commented on the agreement between the parties as follows: “This historic deal will set a significant precedent in privacy”.
Back in 2019, Facebook agreed to pay a $5 billion fine following an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. An additional 100 million was then paid following the investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He eventually paid around $644,000 in fines to the UK.
The scandal, however, as we said, is only partially solved. Meta still faces a lawsuit related to the Cambridge Analytica facts, the one filed by some Washington attorneys general.