A Superior Court judge dismissed a privacy lawsuit filed by Washington, DC, against Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, on Thursday. The ruling concluded that the company did not provide misleading information to consumers related to the Cambridge Analytica incident.
The lawsuit, which accused Meta of violating the district’s consumer protection law, emerged in the wake of the 2018 scandal that put the company under intense global scrutiny. This scrutiny intensified when it was revealed that a third-party personality quiz on Facebook collected the personal data of approximately 87 million users and sold it to the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
In his ruling, Judge Maurice Ross stated, “While the district may disagree with Facebook’s approach to the situation, there is no legal basis that required Facebook to act differently.”
The judge pointed out that Facebook’s policies clearly outlined how third parties could access user data, and the platform provided users with options to restrict data sharing.
“Facebook did not materially mislead consumers as to their response to Cambridge Analytica,” the judge remarked during the session.
Following the court’s decision, the District of Columbia’s attorney general’s office expressed disagreement and noted that it was exploring further options.
Meta has not yet issued a comment on the ruling.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
