Facebook Parent Meta To Settle Cambridge Analytica Case For $725 Million (reuters.com) 25
Facebook owner Meta Platforms has agreed to pay $725 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit accusing the social media giant of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access users' personal information. From a report: The proposed settlement, which was disclosed in a court filing late on Thursday, would resolve a long-running lawsuit prompted by revelations in 2018 that Facebook had allowed the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access data of as many as 87 million users. Lawyers for the plaintiffs called the proposed settlement the largest to ever be achieved in a U.S. data privacy class action and the most that Meta has ever paid to resolve a class action lawsuit.
"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. Meta did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which is subject to the approval of a federal judge in San Francisco. The company said in a statement settling was "in the best interest of our community and shareholders." "Over the last three years we revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program," Meta said.
"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. Meta did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which is subject to the approval of a federal judge in San Francisco. The company said in a statement settling was "in the best interest of our community and shareholders." "Over the last three years we revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program," Meta said.
Re: WTF is this SHIT (Score:1)
"Your data"? Didn't you "I agree" that all you reveal there is theirs to sell now? Maybe go read the ToS again.
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Re: WTF is this SHIT (Score:2)
Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
That's quite a bargain to buy an election result. Good to know.
Re:Wow[, such a bargain Facebook got!] (Score:3)
Vacuous Subject, but I guess you were going for FP, and I think it would have been better than the actual "winner" of that sad "race". Basically the same line I was thinking of, though I was thinking of the total damage done by Facebook rather than limiting it just to this specific abuse.
Just about finished with The Life and Death of Democracy by John Keane, a long history book published back in the halcyon days of 2009. Ah, we were so young and hopeful back then, but it's kind of frightening how many of
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Brexit is thought to cost the taxpayer around 40bn UKP a year in lost revenue due to economic damage. That's and half of Facebook's yearly revenue.
$7.35/user after lawyer fee (Score:3)
Re:$7.35/user after lawyer fee (Score:5, Informative)
You can go to your settings and turn off auto-correct.
Settings=>General=>Keyboard=>Auto-correct=>Off
Re: $7.35/user after lawyer fee (Score:1)
Actually, Cambridge Analytica's little quiz also got access to all players' friends profiles, too.
Hey, little price to pay to get Trump elected and brexit the UK out of the EU.
For those who are interested in the details of how and what, there's this excellent docu, "The Great Hack": https://www.netflix.com/title/... [netflix.com]
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as i attempt to type a witty comment on this iphone,
Are you trying to make us choose which person is the bigger clown -- iPhone users or Facebook users? Are you both?
Its a pretty hard slap (Score:3)
And pay off the right people in Congress this time.
Becoming numb to large numbers? (Score:2)
How many people are becoming numb to the large fines being slapped on corporations and expect that those fines will actually result in corporations changing or the ludicrously rich owners of those corps.
Maybe fines need to be scaled to the assets of the corporation and owners? Doesn't Denmark scale fines to the income or assets of those being fined?
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But yes, all financial punishments handed by Court should scale with income/value/something.
I'm sick and tired of companies settling (Score:5)
Somebody in charge needs to do actual time in the slammer for these shenanigans to stop across the board. As long as companies settle, or pay a fine here and there, Big Data will never stop abusing and misusing data.
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Will it stop the behavior? No (Score:4, Insightful)
Will it stop Facebook (gangland nickname "Meta") from selling the data to political attack analysis firms backed by foreign nations? No. So basically Zuckerberg forced his shareholders to pay $725 million to buy him a free pass from obeying the law.
I await the thundering Wall Street Journal editorial explaining how this settlement generates Moral Hazard(tm).
Re: Will it stop the behavior? No (Score:1)
In the case of Trump's election, IIRC, it was actually Republicans, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook around the meetings table. No foreign agencies involved.
As far as is reveiled, CA worked for domestic political parties in the global majority of countries.
"Historic"? (Score:2)
Relief? (Score:3)