People gather in front of the sign at Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, from an aerial view on July 7, 2023.
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meta platform Facebook has agreed to a A$50 million ($31.85 million) settlement, Australia’s privacy watchdog said on Tuesday, ending the parent company’s protracted and costly legal battle over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner claims that some users’ personal details were leaked to Facebook’s personality quiz app This is Your Digital Life as part of a wider scandal.
The breaches were first reported by The Guardian in early 2018, and Facebook received fines from US and UK regulators in 2019.
Australia’s privacy regulator has been locked in a legal battle with Meta since 2020.
It persuaded the High Court in March 2023 not to hear the appeal, which was seen as a victory and allowed the regulator to proceed with the prosecution.
In June 2023, the country’s federal court ordered Meta and the Privacy Commissioner to mediate.
Australian Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd said: “Today’s settlement is the largest ever paid specifically to address personal privacy issues in Australia.”
British consultancy Cambridge Analytica is understood to have retained the personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent and then used the data primarily for political advertising, including to assist Donald Trump and the Brexit campaign.
A Meta spokesman told Reuters the company had settled the lawsuit without admission in Australia, ending allegations of past practices.
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