- Facebook (META, $161.78), is finally facing the repercussions for letting third parties, access private data of its users.
- It all started in 2018, when Facebook users sued the tech giant after discovering a violation of their consumer privacy rights as their personl data was being shared with Cambridge Analytica. The firm compromised data of 87m users, to attract voters for Trump during the 2016 presidential election.
- Previously in 2019, federal authorities fined Facebook $5b for misusing user data and imposed independent oversight on its data management activities. However, Facebook has not yet revealed the amount or terms of the agreement in the lawsuit filed late Friday.
Why it matters
When the scandal was revealed in 2018, Facebook’s share price by fell more than $100b. There are lessons to be learnt for other social media sites as they can suffer monetary losses if privacy is violated. TikTok and Snapchat (SNAP, $10.67) are currently settling privacy lawsuits against claims of unlawfully disclosing people's data. However, the settlement shows that Meta will pay any amount of money to retain its secrets.
