Happy Nice Mall

Under a preliminary settlement proposed in federal court, Facebook will pay $90 million to settle a privacy lawsuit it alleged after the social network’s unmonitored users logged out of the platform.

A ten-year class action lawsuit accused Facebook of violating federal and California wiretapping laws over how the social network tracks people who visit other websites that display “Like” buttons on Facebook. It was alleged that Facebook sold the data to others and used this information to enrich itself.

The preliminary settlement settlement, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by plaintiffs’ lawyers, said Facebook, rebranded as Meta, had agreed to pay $90 million to settle the case, and that the company would delete the data the plaintiffs cited. incorrectly collected.

The plaintiffs’ team is excited. His lawyers’ filing said the $90 million settlement was “one of the ten largest data privacy class action agreements ever” and described data deletion as the “gold standard” in such class action lawsuits.

“This agreement not only repairs the damage done to Facebook users, but also sets a precedent for future regulation of such matters,” David Straite, co-author of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “I have been involved in several data privacy issues where the defendant would only consider monetary or a showcase injunction. We applaud Facebook’s request to also delete user data that we claim was improperly collected.”

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

Facebook pressured the US Supreme Court to intervene but was rejected last year. According to reports, the platform has denied misconduct.

The agreement proposes to cover all people who use Facebook in the US between April 22, 2010 and September 26, 2011, and visit non-Facebook websites that display Facebook’s “Like” button.

Ending a class action dispute does not mean the end of privacy complaints against Facebook. Texas sued Meta on Monday over allegations that Facebook “illegally hijacked the biometric identifiers of Texans.”