Meta settles with Australian privacy watchdog over Cambridge Analytica case
In an aerial view, people gather in front of a sign posted at the Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on July 7, 2023.
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Meta Platforms has agreed to pay A$50 million ($31.85 million), Australia’s privacy watchdog said on Tuesday, ending long-drawn-out, expensive legal action by Facebook parent over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The Australian Information Commissioner’s Office had alleged that some users’ personal information was being exposed on Facebook’s personality quiz app, This Is Your Digital Life, as part of the wider scandal.
The breach was first reported by the Guardian in early 2018, and Facebook received fines from regulators in the United States and the UK in 2019.
Australia’s privacy regulator has been embroiled in a legal battle with Meta since 2020. The personal data of 311,127 Australian Facebook users was “exposed to the risk of disclosure” to the communications firm Cambridge Analytica and used for profiling purposes, according to a 2020 statement. .
It convinced the high court in March 2023 not to hear the appeal, which is considered a victory that allowed the watchdog to continue its prosecution.
In June 2023, a state court ordered Meta and the privacy commissioner to enter arbitration.
“Today’s settlement represents the largest settlement ever made to resolve Australians’ privacy issues,” said Australian Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd.
Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting firm, was known to have stored the personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent, before using that data mainly for political advertising, including helping Donald Trump and the Brexit campaign in the UK.
A Meta spokesperson told Reuters that the company had settled the case in Australia without a plea bargain, closing the chapter on allegations about the company’s past practices.
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