Facebook owner Meta settles Cambridge Analytica saga with $50m payment deal

The Australian Information Commissioner has dumped civil penalty proceedings against Meta over the Cambridge Analytica scandal after the owner of Facebook agreed to a $50 million settlement.

The commissioner sued the tech giant in 2020 over the alleged breach of 311,000 Australian users’ privacy.

It alleged Facebook “committed serious, and/or repeated interferences with privacy in contravention of Australian privacy law”, saying personal information of some Australian Facebook users was disclosed to the This is Your Digital Life app in breach of the Privacy Act.

It also alleged the information was exposed to the risk of disclosure to Cambridge Analytica and other third parties, and risked being used for political profiling purposes.

The AIC and Meta have been locked in court-ordered mediation since February to thrash out a deal.

Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd said on Tuesday that Meta had now agreed to a $50m payment program as part of an enforceable undertaking.

The settlement requires Meta to set up an independent, two-tier payment scheme by early next year.

It will be open to eligible Australian Facebook users who had an account between November 2, 2013 and December 17, 2015, were in Australia for more than 30 days during that period and either installed the This is Your Digital Life app or were Facebook friends with an individual who installed the app.

“Today’s settlement represents the largest ever payment dedicated to addressing concerns about the privacy of individuals in Australia,” Ms Tydd said.

“It represents a substantive resolution of privacy concerns raised by the Cambridge Analytica matter, gives potentially affected Australians an opportunity to seek redress through Meta’s payment program, and brings to an end a lengthy court process.”

The first of the tiered payments for affected Facebook users will be a base payment if they believe they experienced “generalised concern or embarrassment”.

The second will provide for a specific payment, likely to be higher than the base payment, to those who can demonstrate they have suffered loss or damage.

Applicants may be able to start applying to the payment program in the second quarter of 2025.

“The payment scheme is a significant amount that demonstrates that all entities operating in Australia must be transparent and accountable in the way they handle personal information, in accordance with their obligations under Australian privacy law, and give users reasonable choice and control about how their personal information is used,” Ms Tydd said.

“This also applies to global corporations that operate here. Australians need assurance that whenever they provide their personal information to an organisation, they are protected by the Privacy Act wherever that information goes.”

Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting firm, was known to have kept personal data of millions of Facebook users without their permission, before using the data predominantly for political advertising, including assisting Donald Trump and the Brexit campaign in the UK.

A Meta spokesman that the company had settled the lawsuit on a no admission basis, closing a chapter on allegations regarding past practices of the firm.