Meta Settles Shareholder Privacy Lawsuits, Avoids Executive Testimony
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has reached a settlement with its shareholders over privacy violations. The agreement avoids public testimony from top executives, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, and prevents potential embarrassment and internal disputes.
The settlement comes after a series of privacy breaches, most notably the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018. In this incident, data from over 87 million Facebook users was harvested commercially without their consent. This was the first large-scale revelation of data harvesting practices in the tech industry.
Meta has faced significant fines for these breaches. In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission levied a $5 billion fine. More recently, Meta negotiated a $32.8 million out-of-court fine in Nigeria for data privacy violations. However, there is no public information about any individual settlements with Meta shareholders or specific damages payments.
The settlement allows Meta to avoid public testimony from its executives and potential internal disputes. It also means that discussions held at board level and communications between plaintiffs will not be publicly heard. While the settlement does not address privacy concerns directly, it does allow Meta to move forward with its strategic shift towards personalized content and global advertising.
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