Facebook agrees to settle privacy lawsuit over Cambridge Analytica

Meta’s social media platform Facebook agrees to a settlement in a lawsuit over the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal. Details about the settlement, such as any amount that Meta will pay, are not known.

The prosecution and Facebook parent company Meta have reached an agreement for a settlement and are now working on the final details, according to court documents that have been seen by The Verge. The two sides have asked the judge to suspend the lawsuit for 60 days while the settlement is finalized. No details have yet been shared about the terms of the settlement. Meta has not yet commented on the settlement.

The case is said to have arisen in federal court in San Francisco. Compensation was sought, among other things, because Facebook illegally gave access to users’ private data to third parties, including Cambridge Analytica. Prosecutors alleged that the company did not act adequately to protect users’ data. If the lawsuit had gone through, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg would have have to appear in court. Zuckerberg was already required to make statements in the US Congress in 2018.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light in 2018. Through a Facebook app, the company is said to have collected the data of tens of millions of Facebook users. This data would then be used, among other things, to show targeted advertisements, including in the election campaign of former US President Trump. Facebook was previously fined $5 billion by the US FTC.