Facebook is one of the popular social media platforms that has finally come to resolve the issue of the Cambridge Analytica scandal case. This scandal became popular as Facebook parent Meta has been accused of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to interfere with users’ personal information.
The proposed settlement on Thursday revealed a 2018 case where Facebook permitted the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access the data of 87 million users. In a joint statement, the lead lawyers Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver said, ‘This historic settlement brings meaningful relief to the class and this perplexed and novel privacy case.’
Meta also supports the settlement as the company stated that ‘it is in the best interest of our community and shareholders.’ Meta added, ‘Over the last three years, they have worked hard on maintaining individual privacy with the help of a comprehensive privacy program.’
Cambridge Analytica supported Donald Trump during the presidential campaign in 2016. At that time, they gained massive amounts of personal information from the users to fulfill the purpose of voter profiling and targeting. The British political consulting firm stole the data as they did not ask for consent.
This is one of the old cases of Meta, ongoing, several cases come in between. In 2019, Facebook settled to pay $5 million to resolve the Federal Trade Commission into its privacy practice and $ 100 million to settle the U.S. securities and exchange commission as they had given misleading information to the investors about the misuse of user data.
According to Thursday’s court filing, meta settlement covers an estimated 250 to 280 million Facebook users. The court decides how much an individual will receive depending on how many people have submitted valid claims.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers conclude providing 25% of the settlement as attorney’s fees, in total about $181 million.
- Published By Team Timeswire