Meta agrees to pay $725 million to settle privacy class action suit

Meta Platforms Inc. has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a long-running class action lawsuit alleging that the social media behemoth illegally granted access to user data to third parties, including Cambridge Analytica.

The long-running case that surfaced in 2018 after it was discovered that Facebook had given Cambridge Analytica access to the data of up to 87 million users would be resolved as a result of the proposed settlement, which was revealed in a court filing late Thursday.

The proposed settlement, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, is “the largest recovery ever achieved in a data privacy class action and the most Facebook has ever paid to resolve a private class action.”

“This historic settlement will provide meaningful relief to the class in this complex and novel privacy case,” the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs, Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver, said in a joint statement. As part of the deal, which must be approved by a federal judge in San Francisco, Meta did not admit any wrongdoing. In a statement, the firm claimed that reaching a settlement was “in the best interest of our community and stockholders.”

“Over the last three years we revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program,” the Facebook owner company said.

In order to target and profile voters for Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2016, the now-defunct Cambridge Analytica had access to personal data from millions of Facebook accounts.

On Monday, The European Commission also announced that social media giant Meta has breached EU antitrust rules by ‘’distorting competition in the markets for online classified ads’’.