Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a privacy lawsuit related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The lawsuit was brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a coalition of state attorneys general, who alleged that Facebook allowed the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest the personal data of millions of users without their consent.
The settlement requires Meta to pay $650 million to the FTC and $75 million to the states involved in the lawsuit. The settlement also includes a number of additional requirements, including the appointment of an independent privacy monitor to oversee Facebook’s data practices for the next 20 years.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in 2018, when it was revealed that the firm had obtained data on millions of Facebook users through a personality quiz app. The data was then used to target political ads to users during the 2016 presidential election.
The FTC and the state attorneys general alleged that Facebook had violated the terms of a previous settlement with the agency, which had required the company to obtain users’ express consent before sharing their data. The settlement announced today is the largest ever obtained by the FTC in a privacy case.
In a statement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company is “pleased” to have reached a settlement. “We’ve already made significant changes to our platform to better protect people’s data, and we’ll continue to do so,” Zuckerberg said.
The settlement is a reminder that companies that handle personal data must be transparent about their data collection practices and obtain consent from users. Facebook has agreed to pay a large sum as a penalty for not complying with the regulations, and it will be under strict scrutiny for the next 20 years to ensure they adhere to the data privacy laws.
