Meta to pay $725 million to end the Cambridge Analytica case

Meta Platforms Inc. which owns Facebook, has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that says the social media giant let Cambridge Analytica and other third parties access user information. A long-running lawsuit would be settled by the proposed settlement, which was made public in a court filing late on Thursday. It would be the result of revelations in 2018 that Facebook had granted Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm, access to the data of as many as 87 million users. 

Meta to pay $725 million to end the Cambridge Analytica case

The plaintiffs' attorneys described the proposed settlement as the most Meta has ever paid to settle a class action lawsuit and the largest ever achieved in a U.S. data privacy class action. In a joint statement, Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver, the plaintiffs' lead attorneys, stated, "This historic settlement will provide meaningful relief to the class in this complex and novel privacy case." 

As part of the settlement, which still needs to be approved by a federal judge in San Francisco, Meta did not admit any wrongdoing. "In the best interest of our community and shareholders," the company said in a statement. "Throughout the course of recent years we redid our way to deal with protection and executed an extensive security program," Meta said. The now-defunct Cambridge Analytica worked for Donald Trump's successful 2016 presidential campaign and gained access to the personal information of millions of Facebook accounts for the purpose of targeting and profiling voters.