Meta to pay $725 million in Cambridge Analytica scandal settlement

Facebook’s parent company Meta has agreed to settle the Cambridge Analytica case for $725 million, a U.S. District Court filing reveals. The proposed settlement would resolve a case that had been open since 2018, in which Facebook was accused of allowing the third-party consulting firm to access the data of nearly 87 million users.

Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct company, worked for Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2016. It obtained personal information from Facebook accounts for voter profiling and targeting without users’ consent.

The case prompted governments around the world to reevaluate their privacy practices, and Facebook agreed to pay $5 billion in 2019 to resolve a Federal Trade Commission investigation, then another $100 million to settle. complaints from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, both related to the privacy of users and how their data is used.

The settlement still needs to be approved by a federal judge in the San Francisco Division of the Northern District of California Court. Meta, quoted by Reutersadmitted no wrongdoing and claimed he “revamped the approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program.”

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