In an aerial view, individuals collect in entrance of an indication posted at Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California, July 7, 2023.
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Meta Platforms has agreed to a A$50 million settlement ($31.85 million), Australia’s privateness watchdog stated on Tuesday, closing long-drawn, costly authorized proceedings for the Facebook mum or dad over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner had alleged that private data of some customers was being disclosed to Facebook’s character quiz app, This is Your Digital Life, as a part of the broader scandal.
The breaches have been first reported by the Guardian in early 2018, and Facebook obtained fines from regulators within the United States and the UK in 2019.
Australia’s privateness regulator has been caught up within the authorized battle with Meta since 2020. The private knowledge of 311,127 Australian Facebook customers was “uncovered to the danger of being disclosed” to consulting agency Cambridge Analytica and used for profiling functions, based on the 2020 assertion.
It satisfied the excessive court docket in March 2023 to not hear an enchantment, which is taken into account to be a win that allowed the watchdog to proceed its prosecution.
In June 2023, the nation’s federal court docket ordered Meta and the privateness commissioner to enter mediation.
“Today’s settlement represents the biggest ever fee devoted to addressing issues concerning the privateness of people in Australia,” the Australian Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd stated.
Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting agency, was recognized to have stored private knowledge of hundreds of thousands of Facebook customers with out their permission, earlier than utilizing the info predominantly for political promoting, together with helping Donald Trump and the Brexit marketing campaign within the UK.
A Meta spokesperson instructed Reuters that the corporate had settled the lawsuit in Australia on a no admission foundation, closing a chapter on allegations relating to previous practices of the agency.
