Meta, the parent company of Facebook has announced that they are ready to settle the class action lawsuit that has been lingering for a while.
The class action lawsuit has been longstanding that alleged Meta of being involved in data leakage of the users from the Facebook platform.
Meta to Settle Lawsuit Paying $725 Million
The executives at Meta have agreed to pay a huge amount in the form of a settlement fee for the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed against Facebook for being involved in leaking the personal data of users to third parties.
It was also claimed in the lawsuit that Facebook had leaked the user’s personal information to Cambridge Analytica as well.
The allegations included that the platform was involved in misleading the users and providing them with wrong information about privacy practices.
The particular lawsuit had been ongoing for several years. To be precise, the case class action lawsuit had been filed against Facebook back in 2018.
Meta has agreed that they are willing to pay the $725 million fine to settle their long-running lawsuit. The lawsuit has been going on for four years and the company hopes that it will be able to settle it finally.
Facebook Admitted Sharing Information with Cambridge Analytica
According to the reports, Meta (Facebook) has admitted that they did share the personal information of the users with Cambridge Analytica.
However, they have agreed to settle the case by paying a hefty settlement amount.
The legal teams from Meta’s side confirmed that the personal information of more than 87 million users on Facebook was shared with Cambridge Analytica.
It was alleged that Cambridge Analytica had been working closely with Donald Trump and was helping him with his campaign.
It is a major data analytics firm that is claimed to have assisted Trump in rigging the 2016 elections.
Although Facebook tried to deny the claims when they were first raised, it has now admitted that it was involved in leaking the information.
When the claims were initially made, they sparked a lot of concerns both on the national and international levels. Facebook was the center of attention and the scandal.
The regulatory authorities from many countries were involved in the scrutiny as they wanted to get to the bottom of the case.
Information about the Lawsuit
In the lawsuit, it was claimed that the information belonging to the users on Facebook based in the US was shared with third-party platforms.
The information shared consisted of millions of pages containing the personal and private information of the users based in the United States.
The pages also included information about the former and current employees at Facebook. In addition to that, hours of depositions were also shared by Facebook with third parties.
Largest Privacy Class Action Recovery
The users who had filed a privacy lawsuit against Facebook have claimed that it is the largest recovery any privacy class action lawsuit has achieved.
The agreement is going to settle the matter between Facebook and the users involved in the lawsuit at a high price of $725 million.
The reports confirm that Meta (Facebook) filed a motion on Thursday where it has requested to settle the matter.
As a result of the settlement, up to 280 million people will be eligible to receive a portion of the compensation.
The decision is pending with the Judge
Although the motion has been filed, the decision is still based on the final verdict of the judge. Meta may be trying to get itself out of the trouble by paying $725 million.
However, if it admitted that it did leak out the private information of the users, it can lead to many more cases related to the 2016 election rigging.
For now, Meta can feel better about their decision because the latest trading session has seen a rise in its share prices.
In today’s trading session, Meta’s shares have surged 3.44% and they are now trading at $119.60 per share.