Facebook parent company settles Cambridge Analytica lawsuit

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has settled a lawsuit filed against it in the wake of revelations that the company fed data from millions of users to Cambridge Analytica, a research firm which supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed but filings in San Francisco federal court requested a 60-day stay of the action while lawyers finalize the settlement, suggesting more details could emerge in late October.

Both Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his former top deputy Sheryl Sandberg would have faced hours of grueling deposition had the case gone forward.

The case emerged after Cambridge Analytica, a firm with ties to former Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon, paid a Facebook app developer to receive access to personal data of 87 million Facebook users — which Cambridge than used to better place targeted political ads in support of Trump, who went on to win the 2016 election.

The lawsuit, which had sought certification as a class action representing all Facebook users, maintained that the privacy breach proved Facebook is a “data broker and surveillance firm,” as well as a social network.

With Post Wires