Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc 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.
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 for as many as 87 million users.
Earlier, Facebook held back on naming Cambridge Analytica in 2017, it has been revealed.
Mark Zuckerberg considered saying in a 2017 speech that Facebook was looking into “organizations like Cambridge Analytica,” according to details from a deposition of him by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
But he decided to remove reference to the political consultancy which harvested data on millions of Facebook users ahead of the 2016 U. presidential election, a previously unreported move that could add fuel to shareholder allegations that Zuckerberg and other executives hid information from the public about one of its biggest privacy scandals.
When Meta executives learned of issues related to Cambridge Analytica, and how they responded, is central to lawsuits in California and Delaware in which shareholders allege the executives breached fiduciary duties and consumers allege mishandling of their private information.
Attorneys for both sets of plaintiffs declined to comment.
Facebook, now organized as Meta Platforms Inc, ordered Cambridge Analytica in 2015 to delete inappropriately gathered user information and has said that it considered the matter resolved until March 2018 when new concerns emerged.
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