The saga of the ill-fated data scandal revolving around social media giant Facebook and British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) has recently come to an end. On Thursday, Facebook parent company Meta announced that it has agreed to a $725 million settlement of the class-action lawsuit brought against them by Facebook users over CA’s misuse of their personal data in the 2018 breach.
Late in 2018, Facebook had alerted its users that their personal information may have been compromised in a data scandal involving Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and a third-party app. Cambridge Analytica is accused of collecting personal data from up to 87 million Facebook users without their explicit permission and then using this data to influence the 2016 US presidential election.
As a result of this scandal, associations representing Facebook users throughout the US had filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the tech giant of breaching its privacy agreement. The lawsuit accused Facebook of failing to properly protect user data, failing to inform its users about the data breach, and failing to take steps to limit the impact of the data breach.
Under the terms of the settlement, Facebook parent Meta will pay out $650 million in cash and provide an additional $75 million worth of non-cash consideration. The settlement also mandates Facebook to make changes to its platform that, according to the company, are designed to improve user privacy. Additionally, Facebook will dedicate $100 million to research into underlying privacy and data protection issues.
The money that comes from this settlement will go to finance security measures and other initiatives to improve user data protection. Additionally, it will also fund claims programs to allow the victims of the class-action lawsuit to receive compensation. These claims programs will allow users to request payment if they were adversely affected by the 2018 data scandal.
The settlement of this class-action lawsuit marks the end of a tense penalty period for Facebook, who have come under considerable fire for their handling of user data over the past few years. Whilst many of the changes Facebook has promised as a result of the settlement are welcome, some criticize that its terms still allow the company to make substantial sums from exploiting its user’s data. It remains to be seen how effective the punishment is going to be in terms of protecting the data of its users.
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