The US Supreme Court approved the continuation of the collective action against Meta
An investor class action lawsuit over a privacy scandal involving political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica can proceed against Facebook owner Meta, the United States Supreme Court has ruled.
Judges heard arguments in November as Meta tried to drop the lawsuit, but decided they shouldn’t even hear the case. Thus, the Supreme Court dismissed the company’s appeal and upheld the lower court’s ruling, allowing the process to continue.
Investors claim that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users’ personal data could be misused by Cambridge Analytica. This firm supported the first presidential campaign of Donald Trump in 2016.
Investors also say that inadequate information caused two significant drops in the company’s share price in 2018, after the extent of the privacy scandal became public knowledge.
Meta has already paid a $5.1 billion fine, as well as $725 million in a settlement with users over a privacy breach.
Cambridge Analytica was linked to Trump’s political strategist, Steve Bannon. The firm paid a Facebook app developer to access the personal data of about 87 million users, which was then used to target American voters during the 2016 presidential campaign.
This lawsuit is one of two large class action lawsuits against technology companies before the Supreme Court. The court is also dealing with a case against Nvidia, where investors claim the company misled them about its dependence on selling chips to mine volatile cryptocurrencies.
Source: BIZLife
Photo: Freepik
Source: bizlife.rs
