Supreme Court Delivers Major Decision against Facebook

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Disclaimer: The article may include the author's opinions.

Due to the notorious Cambridge Analytica privacy breach, the Supreme Court has opened the door for a multibillion-dollar class-action lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company, Meta. The courts rejected Meta’s appeal in a ruling issued on Friday, effectively admitting that a lower court ought to have heard the case and permitting it to proceed.

The lawsuit was filed by investors who claim Meta failed to properly disclose the risks of Facebook users’ personal data being misused by Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm involved in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. These investors argue that Meta’s failure to adequately disclose this information contributed to two major drops in the company’s stock price in 2018, as the full extent of the privacy scandal became public.

It was expressed by Meta spokesperson Andy Stone that the company was disappointed by the court’s decision, with the claims being described as “baseless.” The company reaffirmed that its defense would continue in the lower court, with the statement indicating, that the Defense will be continued as this case is considered by the District Court.

Meta has already faced significant financial repercussions, including a $5.1 billion fine and a $725 million settlement in a separate privacy lawsuit involving Facebook users.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal dates back to 2014, when the firm, with ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal data of approximately 87 million users. This data was used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 presidential election.

The Supreme Court is considering a class-action lawsuit against Nvidia, another computer company, in addition to the Meta case. In one instance, investors claim the business misled them about how much of its computer chip sales were dependent on the erratic cryptocurrency market.

Meanwhile, a comparison has been drawn between the practices of the Clinton and Trump campaigns regarding data collection. Reports from 2018 revealed that while Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign was offered similar access to Facebook data as the Trump campaign, it allegedly turned down the offer. However, in March 2018, Fox News reported that Clinton’s campaign may have harvested Facebook data through an app called “Hillary 2016,” which prompted users to link their Facebook friends list to their phone contacts, potentially allowing the campaign to gather personal data without consent.

The program enabled users to send customized messages to their Facebook friends urging them to vote for Clinton, getting around Facebook’s limits on accessing friends’ data. Facebook prohibited the technique in 2014, but it has since come under fire, particularly in the wake of the Trump campaign’s Cambridge Analytica debacle. Officials from Clinton’s campaign have denied any misconduct.

While Facebook had outlawed the practice of accessing users’ friends lists in 2014, the “Hillary 2016” app exploited a special integration with iPhones, which allowed users to sync their Facebook friends list with their phone contacts, giving the campaign access to those connections. Those who didn’t download the app had no way to prevent their friends from linking their phone numbers to Facebook accounts if those friends opted to do so.

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