After the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, US users filed a lawsuit against Facebook. After years of litigation, Facebook is now ready for a settlement.
The Facebook group Meta wants to settle a lawsuit filed by US users over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that has been going on for years. Attorneys for both sides asked a federal district court in California over the weekend to stay proceedings for 60 days so they can work out details of a settlement. In just over three weeks, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and top manager Sheryl Sandberg, who has been responsible for operations for years, are to face several hours of questioning by the plaintiff’s lawyers.
Settlement will be negotiated within 60 days
Details of the desired terms of the agreement were not initially made public. A settlement would still have to be cleared by the court for it to take effect. However, the attorneys’ joint letter to the Northern California District Court in San Francisco is public (Ref. 3:18-md-02843).
In the Cambridge Analytica case, a data analysis company of the same name (and other companies, as it later emerged) had gained access to some data from millions of Facebook users without their knowledge. The company had published a survey in which some Facebook users took part. But thanks to the privacy settings of the time, she also got access to some of her Facebook friends’ information. When this became known, Facebook came under pressure and promised to improve data protection, which was only implemented in several attempts. The US supervisory authority investigated the case for violations of data protection and finally agreed with the company on high fines: The company had to pay 5 billion US dollars to the FTC alone in 2019 (which corresponds to approximately one month’s sales of the group).
Fraudulent company Cambridge Analytica
Cambridge Analytica also worked for Donald Trump, who was victorious at the time, during the 2016 presidential election campaign. However, the role of this data in the success was later downplayed.
The US user lawsuit was filed in 2018. In the event of a loss in the case, payments of several hundred million dollars would have been possible. Cambridge Analytica’s actions have now been classified as fraudulent. Facebook had asserted that its handling of user data was in line with its data protection principles and did not justify any legal claims against the company.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal could have other legal ramifications: Washington Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg personally in May. As Facebook boss, Racine argued that he was directly involved in decisions that led to the scandal.
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