Facebook agrees to settle Cambridge Analytica data privacy lawsuit

Facebook has agreed to pay damages and settle a lawsuit in the San Francisco federal court over letting third parties like Cambridge Analytica access the private data of users, reports said

A Reuters report quoting a court filing on Friday said Facebook agreed in-principle for a settlement and that the financial terms were not disclosed. In the filing, Meta Platforms Inc's Facebook asked the judge to put the class action on hold for 60 days until the lawyers on both sides finalise a settlement.

The lawsuit, which has been going on for four years, alleged that Facebook violated consumer privacy laws by sharing personal data of users with third parties.


The third party mentioned is the now-defunct British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica, which came under a bit of controversy during elections held in India as well.

There was no comment either from Facebook or from any of the plaintiffs.

The allegation in the Facebook -Cambridge Analytica data scandal was that Facebook provided access to the private data of 67 million Facebook users, which was used for voter profiling.

It was alleged that personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users was collected in the 2010s without their consent through an app called "This Is Your Digital Life".

The app asked a series of questions to users to build their psychological profile, and collected the personal data of the users’ friends on Facebook friends via the Open Graph platform.

Facebook has been maintaining that its privacy practices are consistent with its disclosures on the platform.

The settlement would mean that top Meta executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg need not depose in the lawsuit.

Sandberg has now stepped down from her key role as Meta's Chief Operating Officer after 14 years as the company's second-highest ranking executive, but will will remain an employee through September 30.