After a four-year legal battle, Facebook has abruptly reached a settlement in principle for an undisclosed amount in a lawsuit seeking damages for granting Cambridge Analytica access to the personal data of 80 million users, after paying billions of dollars in fines and settlements since a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower exposed the company in 2018.
“Because the Parties have reached an agreement in principle of the Action and believe it will facilitate the process of finalizing a written settlement agreement and presenting to the Court for preliminary approval, the Parties jointly request a stay of the Action for sixty (60) days,” co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs Lesley E. Weaver wrote in the filing. He added that lawyers for both sides supported the request.
The lawsuit was originally filed by several people who alleged that Cambridge Analytica’s “This Is Your Digital Life” Facebook quiz app collected data that gave access to the personal information of 80 million or more users and used that information to create profiles of US voters and target them with political ads.
The sources for this piece include an article in CSO.
